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• 


ROLLO'S  MUSEUM. 


THE  ROLLO  SERIES 


18    COMPOSED   OF    FOURTEEN   VOLUMES,  VIZ. 


Rollo  Learning  to  Talk. 
Rollo  Learning  to  Read. 
Rollo  at  Work. 
Rollo  at  Play. 
Rollo  at  School. 
Rollo's  Vacation. 
Rollo's  Experiments. 


Rollo's  Museum. 
Rollo's  Travels. 
Rollo's  Correspondence. 
Rollo's  Philosophy — Water 
Rollo's  Philosophy — Air. 
Rollo's  Philosophy— Fire. 
Rollo's  Philosophy— Sky. 


A    NEW    EDITION,   REVISED   BY   THE   AUTHOR. 


PHILADELPHIA: 

B.    F.    JACKSON 

1853. 


Entered  according  to  the  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1850,  by 

Hogan  &  Thompson, 
In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  Eastern  District  of  Pennsylvania* 


CONTENTS 


Page. 
THE  CANAL 11 

A  FALSE   ALARM 34 

THE    HEMLOCK-SEED 46 

A  LITTLE  LAW 60 

CONFUSION 77 

ORGANIZATION 88 

CAUGHT,  — AND   GONE  AGAIN 106 

THE   BAILMENT  CASES 120 

THE  CURIOSITIES 136 

THE  SEA-SHORE 154 

THE  CLIFFS 167 

THE  THREE  NORTHMEN 179 


ROLLO'S    MUSEUM, 


THE    CANAL. 


It  happened  one  summer,  when  Rollo 
was  between  seven  and  eight  years  of  age. 
that  there  was  a  vacation  at  the  school  which 
he  was  attending  at  that  time.  The  vaca- 
tion commenced  in  the  latter  part  of  August, 
and  was  to  continue  for  four  or  five  weeks. 
Rollo  had  studied  pretty  hard  at  school,  and 
he  complained  that  his  eyes  ached  some- 
times. 

The  day  before  the  vacation  commenced, 
his  father  became  somewhat  uneasy  about 
his  eyes ;  and  so  he  took  him  to  a  physician, 
to  see  what  should  be  done  for  them.  The 
physician  asked  Rollo  a  good  many  ques- 
tions, all  of  which  Rollo  endeavored  to 
answer  as  correctly  as  he  could. 

At  length,  the  physician  told  Rollo's  father 


10  THE    CANAL. 

that  all  he  needed  was  to  let  his  eyes  rest. 
"  I  think  he  had  better  not  use  them  at  all," 
said  he,  "for  reading  or  writing,  for  several 
weeks ;  and  not  to  be  out  much  in  the  hot 
sun." 

Rollo  felt  very  much  rejoiced  at  hearing 
this  prescription,  though  still  he  looked 
very  sober ;  for  he  felt  somewhat  awed  and 
restrained  by  being  in  the  doctor's  office. 
There  were  a  good  many  large  books,  in 
cases  upon  one  side  of  the  room ;  and  strange, 
uncouth-looking  pictures  hanging  up,  which, 
so  far  as  Rollo  could  see,  did  not  look  like 
any  thing  at  all.  Then  there  was  an  elec- 
tric machine  upon  a  stand  in  one  corner, 
which  he  was  afraid  might  in  some  way 
"shock"  him;  and  some  frightful-looking 
surgical  instruments  in  a  little  case,  which 
was  open  upon  the  table  in  the  middle  of 
the  room. 

In  fact,  Rollo  was  very  glad  to  escape 
safely  out  of  the  doctor's  office ;  and  he  was, 
if  possible,  still  more  rejoiced  that  he  had 
so  light  and  easy  a  prescription.  He  had 
thought  that,  perhaps,  the  doctor  would  put 
something  on  his  eyes,  and  bandage  them 
up,  so  that  he  could  not  see  at  all ;  or  else 


THE    CANAL.  11 

give  him  some  black  and  bitter  medicines 
to  take  every  night  and  morning. 

Instead  of  that,  he  said  to  himself,  as  he 
came  out  at  the  door,  "  I  have  only  got  to 
keep  from  studying,  and  that  will  be  capital. 
I  can  play  all  the  time.  True,  I  can't  read 
any  story  books ;  but,  then,  I  am  willing  to 
give  the  story  books  up,  if  I  don't  have  to 
study." 

Rollo  had  usually  been  obliged  to  read, 
or  study,  or  write  a  little,  even  in  vacations  ; 
for  his  mother  said  that  boys  could  not  be 
happy  to  play  all  the  time.  Rollo,  however, 
thought  that  she  was  mistaken  in  this.  It 
is  true  that  she  had  sometimes  allowed  him 
to  try  the  experiment  for  a  day  or  two,  and 
in  such  cases  he  had  always,  somehow  or 
other,  failed  of  having  a  pleasant  time.  But 
then  he  himself  always  attributed  the  failure 
to  some  particular  difficulty  or  source  of 
trouble,  which  happened  to  come  up  then, 
but  which  would  not  be  likely  to  occur 
again. 

In  fact,  in  this  opinion  Rollo  was  partly 
correct.  For  it  was  true  that  each  day, 
when  he  failed  of  enjoying  himself,  there 
was  some  peculiar  reason  for  it,  and  exactly 


12  THE    CANAL. 

that  reason  would  not  be  likely  to  exist 
another  day.  But  then  the  difficulty  with 
playing,  or  attempting  to  amuse  one's  self 
all  the  time,  is,  that  it  produces  such  a  state 
of  mind,  that  almost  any  thing  becomes  a 
source  of  uneasiness  or  dissatisfaction ;  and 
something  or  other  is  likely  to  occur,  or 
there  will  be  something  or  other  wanting, 
which  makes  the  time  pass  very  heavily 
along. 

It  is  so  with  men  as  well  as  boys.  Men 
sometimes  are  so  situated  that  they  have 
nothing  to  do  but  to  try  to  amuse  themselves. 
But  these  men  are  generally  a  very  unhappy 
class.  The  poorest  laborer,  who  toils  all 
day  at  the  hardest  labor,  is  happier  than 
they. 

So  that  the. physician's  prescription  was, 
in  reality,  a  far  more  disagreeable  one  than 
Rollo  had  imagined. 

When  Rollo  reached  home,  he  told  his 
mother  that  he  was  not  to  have  any  thing 
more  to  do  with  books  for  a  month. 

"  And  you  look  as  if  you  were  glad  of  it," 
said  she,  with  a  smile. 

"  Yes,  mother,  I  am,"  said  Rollo,  "  rather 
glad." 


THE    CANAL.  13 

"And  what  do  you  expect  to  3o  with 
yourself  all  that  time  ?  "  said  she. 

"  O,  I  don't  know,"  said  Rollo.  "  Perhaps 
I  shall  help  Jonas,  a  part  of  the  time,  about 
his  work." 

"  That  will  be  a  very  good  plan  for  a  part 
of  the  time,"  said  his  mother;  "though  he 
is  doing  pretty  hard  work  just  now." 

"What  is  he  doing?" 

"  He  is  digging  a  little  canal  in  the  marsh, 
beyond  the  brook,  to  drain  off  the  water." 

"O,  I  can  dig,"  said  Rollo,  "and  I  mean 
to  go  now  and  help  him." 

This  was  about  the  middle  of  the  fore- 
noon ;  and  Rollo,  taking  a  piece  of  bread  for 
a  luncheon,  and  a  little  tin  dipper,  to  get 
some  water  with,  to  drink,  out  of  the  brook, 
walked  along  towards  the  great  gate  which 
led  to  the  lane  behind  his  father's  house. 
It  was  a  pleasant,  green  lane,  and  there  were 
rows  of  raspberry-bushes  on  each  side  of  it, 
along  by  the  fences.  Some  years  before, 
there  had  been  no  raspberries  near  the  house ; 
but  one  autumn,  when  Jonas  had  a  good 
deal  of  ploughing  to  do  down  the  lane,  he 
ploughed  up  the  ground  by  the  fences  in 
this  lane,  making  one  furrow  every  time  he 
2 


14  THE    CANAL. 

went  up  and  down  to  his  other  work.  Then 
in  the  spring  he  ploughed  it  again,  and  by 
this  time  the  turf  had  rotted,  and  so  the  land 
had  become  mellow.  Then  Jonas  went 
away  with  the  wagon,  one  afternoon,  about 
two  miles,  to  a  place  where  the  raspberries 
were  very  abundant,  and  dug  up  a  large 
number  of  them,  and  set  them  out  along  this 
lane,  on  both  sides  of  it ;  and  so,  in  a  year 
or  two,  there  was  a  great  abundance  of  rasp- 
berries very  near  the  house. 

Rollo  stopped  to  eat  some  raspberries  as 
he  walked  along.  He  thought  they  would 
do  exceedingly  well  with  his  bread,  to  give 
a  little  variety  to  his  luncheon.  After  he 
had  eaten  as  many  as  he  wanted,  he  thought 
he  would  gather  his  dipper  full  for  Jonas,  as 
he  was  busy  at  work,  and  could  not  have 
time  to  gather  any  for  himself. 

He  got  his  dipper  full  very  quick,  for 
the  raspberries  were  thick  and  large.  He 
thought  it  was  an  excellent  plan  for  Jonas  to 
plant  the  raspberry-bushes  there ;  but  then 
he  thought  it  was  a  great  deal  of  trouble  to 
bring  them  all  from  so  great  a  distance. 

"I  wonder,"  said  he  to  himself,  as  he  sat 
upon  a  log,  thinking  of  the  subject,  "  why  it 


THE    CANAL.  15 

would  not  have  been  just  as  well  to  plant 
raspberries  themselves,  instead  of  setting  out 
the  bushes.  The  raspberries  must  be  the 
seeds.  I  mean  to  take  some  of  these  big 
ones,  and  try.     I  dare  say  they'll  grow." 

But  then  he  reflected  that  the  spring  was 
planting  time,  and  he  knew  very  well  that 
raspberries  would  not  keep  till  spring ;  and 
so  he  determined  to  ask  Jonas  about  it. 
He  accordingly  rose  up  from  the  log,  and 
walked  along,  carrying  his  dipper,  very  care- 
fully, in  his  hand. 

At  length,  he  reached  the  brook.  There 
was  a  rude  bridge  over  it  made  of  two  logs, 
placed  side  by  side,  and  short  boards  nailed 
across  them  for  a  foot-way.  It  was  only 
wide  enough  for  persons  to  walk  across. 
The  cattle  and  teams  always  went  across 
through  the  water,  at  a  shallow  place,  just 
below  the  bridge. 

Rollo  lay  down  upon  the  bridge,  and  looked 
into  the  water.  There  were  some  skippers 
and  some  whirlabouts  upon  the  water.  The 
skippers  were  long-legged  insects,  shaped 
somewhat  like  a  cricket;  and  they  stood 
tiptoe  upon  the  surface  of  the  water.  Rollo 
wondered  how  they  could  keep  up.     Their 


16  THE    CANAL. 

feet  did  not  sink  into  the  water  at  all,  and 
every  now  and  then  they  would  give  a  sort 
of  leap,  and  away  they  would  shoot  over  the 
surface,  as  if  it  had  been  ice.  Rollo  reached 
his  hand  down  and  tried  to  catch  one,  to 
examine  his  feet ;  but  he  could  not  succeed. 
They  were  too  nimble  for  him.  He  thought 
that,  if  he  could  only  catch  one,  and  have 
an  opportunity  to  examine  his  feet,  he 
could  see  how  it  was  that  he  could  stand 
so  upon  the  water.  Rollo  was  consid- 
ering whether  it  was  possible  or  not, 
that  Jonas  might  make  something,  like 
the  skippers'  feet,  for  him,  to  put  upon  his 
feet,  so  that  he  might  walk  on  the  water, 
when  suddenly  he  heard  a  bubbling  sound 
in  the  brook,  near  the  shore.  He  looked 
there,  and  saw  some  bubbles  of  air  coming 
up  out  of  the  bottom,  and  rising  to  the  top 
of  the  water.  He  thought  this  was  very 
singular.  It  was  not  strange  that  the  air 
should  come  up  through  the  water  to  the 
top,  for  air  is  much  lighter  than  water ;  the 
wonder  was,  how  the  air  could  ever  get  down 
there. 

Prom   wondering    at    this    extraordinary 
phenomenon,   Rollo   began    to    wonder    at 


THE    CANAL.  17 

another  quite  different  question;  that  is, 
where  all  the  water  in  the  brook  could  come 
from.  He  looked  at  a  little  cascade  just 
above  the  bridge,  where  the  water  rushed 
through  a  narrow  place  between  two  rocks, 
and  watched  it  a  few  minutes,  wondering 
that  it  should  continue  running  so  all  the 
time,  forever  ;  and  surprised  also  that  he  had 
never  wondered  at  it  before. 

He  looked  into  the  clear,  transparent  cur- 
rent, which  poured  steadily  down  between 
the  rocks,  and  said  to  himself, 

"  Strange  !  There  it  runs  and  runs,  all  the 
time  —  all  day,  and  all  night ;  all  summer, 
and  all  winter ;  all  this  year,  and  all  last  year, 
and  every  year.  Where  can  all  the  water 
come  from  ? " 

Then  he  thought  that  he  should  like  to 
follow  the  brook  up,  and  find  where  it  came 
from ;  but  he  concluded  that  it  must  be  a 
great  way  to  go,  through  bushes,  and  rocks, 
and  marshes ;  and  he  saw  at  once  that  the 
expedition  was  out  of  the  question  for  him. 

Just   then  he  heard  another  gurgling  in 

the  water  near  him,  and,  looking  down,  he 

saw  more  bubbles  coming  up  to  the  surface, 

very  near  where  they  had  come  up  before. 

a*  2* 


18  THE    CANAL. 

Rollo  thought  he  would  get  a  stick,  and  see 
if  he  could  not  poke  up  the  mud,  and  find 
out  what  there  was  down  there,  to  make 
such  a  bubbling.  He  thought  that  perhaps 
it  might  be  some  sort  of  animal  blowing. 

He  went  off  of  the  bridge,  therefore,  and 
began  to  look  about  for  a  stick.  He  had  just 
found  one,  when  all  at  once  he  heard  a  noise 
in  the  bushes.  He  looked  up  suddenly,  not 
knowing  what  was  coming,  but  in  a  moment 
saw  Jonas  walking  along  towards  him. 

"Ah,  Jonas,"  said  Rollo,  "are  you  going 
home  ? " 

"  Yes,"  said  Jonas,  "  unless  you  will  go 
for  me." 

"  Well,"  said  Rollo,  "  what  do  you  want 
me  to  get  ?  " 

"  I  want  some  fire,  to  burn  up  some  brush. 
You  can  bring  out  the  lantern." 

"  Very  well,"  said  Rollo,  "  I  will  go  j  only 
I  wish  you  would  tell  me  where  these  bub- 
bles come  from  out  of  the  bottom  of  the 
brook." 

"  What  bubbles  ?  "  said  Jonas. 

So  Rollo  took  his  stick,  and  pushed  the 
end  of  it  down  into  the  mud,  and  that  made 
more  bubbles  come  up. 


THE    CANAL.  19 

"  They  are  bubbles  of  air,"  said  Jonas. 

"  But  how  comes  the  air  down  there," 
said  Rollo,  "under  the  water?" 

"•I  don't  know,"  said  Jonas;  "and  be- 
sides I  must  not  stay  and  talk  here  ;  I  must 
go  back  to  my  work.  I  will  talk  to  you 
about  it  when  you  come  back."  So  Jonas 
returned  to  his  work,  and  Rollo  went  to  the 
house  again  after  the  lantern. 

When  he  came  back  to  the  brook,  he  found 
that  he  could  not  make  any  more  bubbles 
come  up ;  but  instead  of  that,  his  attention 
was  attracted  by  some  curiously  colored 
pebbles  near  the  shore.  He  put  his  hand 
down  into  the  water,  and  took  up  two  or 
three  of  them.  He  thought  they  were 
beautiful.  Then  he  took  his  dipper,  which 
had,  all  this  time,  been  lying  forgotten  by 
the  side  of  a  log,  on  the  shore,  and  walked 
along  —  the  dipper  full  of  raspberries  in  one 
hand,  the  lantern  in  the  other,  and  his  bright 
and  beautiful  pebbles  in  his  pocket. 

Rollo  followed  the  path  along  the  banks 
of  the  brook  under  the  trees,  until  at  length 
he  came  out  to  the  open  ground  where  Jonas 
was  at  work.  There  was  a  broad  meadow, 
or  rather   marsh,  which  extended  back  to 


20  THE    CANAL. 

some  distance  from  the  brook,  and  beyond 
it  the  land  rose  to  a  hill.  Just  at  the  foot 
of  this  high  land,  at  the  side  of  the  marsh 
farthest  from  the  brook,  was  a  pool  of  water, 
which  had  been  standing  there  all  summer, 
and  was  half  full  of  green  slime.  Jonas  had 
been  at  work,  cutting  a  canal,  or  drain,  from 
the  bank  of  the  brook  back  to  this  pool,  in 
order  to  let  the  water  off.  The  last  time 
that  Rollo  had  seen  the  marsh,  it  had  been 
very  wet,  so  wet  that  it  was  impossible  for 
him  to  walk  over  it ;  it  was  then  full  of 
green  moss,  and  sedgy  grass,  and  black  mire, 
with  tufts  of  flags,  brakes,  and  cranberry- 
bushes,  here  and  there  all  over  it.  If  any 
person  stepped  upon  it,  he  would  immediately 
sink  in,  except  in  some  places,  where  the 
surface  was  firm  enough  to  bear  one  up,  and 
there  the  ground  quivered  and  fluctuated 
under  the  tread,  for  some  distance  around, 
showing  that  it  was  all  soft  below. 

When  Rollo  came  out  in  view  of  the 
marsh,  he  saw  Jonas  at  work  away  off  in  the 
middle  of  it,  not  very  far  from  the  pool.  So 
he  called  out  to  him  in  a  very  loud  voice, 

"Jo— nas! hal  —  lo!" 


THE    CANAL.  23 

Jonas,  who  had  been  stooping  down  at 
his  work,  rose  up  at  hearing  this  call,  and 
replied  to  Rollo. 

Rollo  asked  him  how  he  should  get  across 
to  him. 

"  O,  walk  right  along,"  said  Jonas;  "the 
ground  is  pretty  dry  now.  Go  up  a  little 
farther,  and  you  will  find  my  canal,  and  then 
you  can  follow  it  directly  along." 

So  Rollo  walked  on  a  little  farther,  and 
found  the  canal  where  it  opened  into  the 
brook.  He  then  began  slowly  and  cautiously 
to  walk  along  the  side  of  the  canal,  into  the 
marsh ;  and  he  was  surprised  to  find  how 
firm  and  dry  the  land  was.  He  thought  it 
was  owing  to  Jonas's  canal. 

"Jonas,"  said  he,  as  he  came  up  to  where 
Jonas  was  at  work,  "  this  is  an  excellent 
canal;  it  has  made  the  land  almost  dry 
already." 

"  O,  no,"  said  Jonas,  "  my  canal  has  not 
done  any  good  yet." 

"  What  makes  the  bog  so  dry,  then  ?  "  said 
Rollo. 

"O,  it  has  been  drying"  all  summer,  and 
draining  off  into  the  brook." 


24 


THE    CANAL. 


"  Draining  off  into  the  brook  ? "  repeated 
Rollo. 

"  Yes,"  said  Jonas. 

"  But  there  is  not  any  drain,"  said  Rollo  ; 
"  at  least  there  has  not  been,  until  you  began 
to  make  your  canal." 

"  But  the  water  soaks  off  slowly  through 
the  ground,  and  oozes  out  under  the  banks 
of  the  brook." 

"  Does  it?"  said  Rollo. 

"  Yes,"  said  Jonas  ;  "  and  the  only  use  of 
my  canal  is  to  make  it  run  off  faster." 

"  Ah !  now  I  know,"  said  Rollo,  half 
talking  to  himself. 

"  Know  what  ?  "  asked  Jonas. 

"  Why,  where  all  the  water  of  the  brook 
comes  from  j  at  least,  where  some  of  it  comes 
from." 

"  How  ?  "  said  Jonas.  "  I  don't  know  what 
you  mean." 

"  Why,  I*could  not  think  where  all  the 
water  came  from,  to  keep  the  brook  running 
so  fast  all  the  time.  But  now  I  know  that 
some  of  it  has  been  coming  all  the  time  from 
this  bog.     Does  it  all  come  from  bogs  ?  " 

"  Yes,  from  bogs,  and  hills,  and  springs, 


THE    CANAL.  25 

and  from  the  soakings  of  all   the   land   it 
comes  through,  from  where  it  first  begins." 

"Where  does  it  first  begin  ? "  said  Rollo. 

"  O,  it  begins  in  some  bog  or  other,  per- 
haps ;  just  a  little  dribbling  stream  oozing 
out  from  among  roots  and  mire,  and  it  con- 
tinually grows  as  it  runs." 

"  Is  that  the  way?  "  said  Rollo. 

"  Yes,"  said  Jonas,  "that  is  the  way." 

During  all  this  time  Rollo  had  been  stand- 
ing with  his  lantern  and  his  dipper  in  his 
hands,  while  Jonas  had  continued  his  dig- 
ging. Rollo  now  put  the  lantern  down,  and 
handed  the  dipper  to  Jonas,  telling  him  that 
he  had  brought  him  some  raspberries. 

Jonas  seemed  quite  pleased  with  his  rasp- 
berries. While  he  was  eating  them,  Rollo 
asked  him  if  a  raspberry  was  a  seed. 

"  No,"  said  Jonas.  "  The  whole  raspberry 
is  not,  the  seeds  are  in  the  raspberry.  They 
are  very  small.  When  you  eat  a  raspberry, 
you  can  feel  the  little  seeds,  by  biting  them 
with  your  teeth." 

Rollo  determined  to  pick  some  seeds  out, 
and  see  how  they  looked;  but  Jonas  told 
him  that  the  way  to  get  them  out  was  to 
wash  them  out  in  water. 
b  3 


26  THE    CANAL. 

"  Take  some  of  these  raspberries,"  said 
he,  "  in  the  dipper  to  the  brook,  and  pour  in 
some  water  over  them.  Then  take  a  stick 
and  jam  the  raspberries  all  up,  and  stir  them 
about,  and  then  pour  off  the  water,  but  keep 
the  seeds  in.  Next,  pour  in  some  more 
water,  and  wash  the  seeds  over  again,  and 
so  on,  until  the  seeds  are  all  separated  from 
the  pulp,  and  left  clean." 

"Is  that  the  way  they  get  raspberry 
seeds?  "  said  Rollo. 

"Yes,"  said  Jonas,  "I  believe  so.  I  never 
tried  it  myself ;  but  I  have  heard  them  say 
that  that  is  the  Avay  they  do  with  raspberries, 
and  strawberries,  and  all  such  fruits." 

Rollo  immediately  went  and  washed  out 
some  seeds  as  Jonas  had  directed,  and  when 
he  came  back  he  spread  them  out  upon  a 
piece  of  birch  bark  to  dry.  While  they 
were  there,  Jonas  let  him  kindle  the  pile  of 
brush  wood,  which  he  had  been  intending  to 
burn.  It  had  been  lying  all  summer,  and 
had  got  very  dry.  In  the  mean  time,  Jonas 
continued  digging  his  canal,  and  was  gradu- 
ally approaching  the  pool  of  water.  When 
he  had  got  pretty  near  the  pool,  he  stopped 
digging  the  canal,  and  went  to  the  pool  itself 


THE    CANAL.  27 

He  rolled  a  pretty  large  log  into  the  edge  of 
it,  for  him  to  stand  upon ;  and  with  his  hoe 
he  dug  a  trench,  beginning  as  far  in  the  pool 
as  he  could  reach  with  his  hoe,  while  stand- 
ing upon  his  log,  and  working  gradually  out 
towards  where  he  had  left  digging  the  canal. 
The  bottom  of  the  pool  was  very  soft  and 
slimy ;  but  he  contrived  to  get  a  pretty  deep 
and  wide  trench  out  quite  to  the  margin,  and 
a  little  beyond. 

"Now,"  said  he  to  Rollo,  "I  am  going  to 
dig  the  canal  up  to  the  end  of  this  trench, 
and  then  the  water  will  all  run  very  freely.'1 

There  was  now  a  narrow  neck  of  land 
between  the  end  of  the  canal  and  the  begin- 
ning of  the  trench ;  and  as  Jonas  went  on 
digging  the  canal  along,  this  neck  grew 
narrower  and  narrower.  Rollo  began  to  be 
impatient  to  see  the  water  run.  He  wanted 
Jonas  to  let  him  hoe  a  little  passage,  so  as  to 
let  it  begin  to  run  a  little. 

"No,"  said  Jonas. 

"  Why  not  ?  "  said  Rollo. 

"  There  are  two  good  reasons,"  he  replied. 
"  The  first  is,  it  will  spoil  my  work,  and  the 
second  is,  it  will  spoil  your  play*" 


28  THE    CANAL. 

"What  do  you  mean  by  that?"  said 
Rollo. 

"  Why,  if  I  let  the  water  run  a  little  now, 
it  will  flood  me  here,  where  I  am  digging, 
and  make  all  muddy ;  and  I  cannot  finish 
my  canal  so  easily ;  so  it  will  spoil  my  work. 
Then,  besides,  we  want  to  see  the  water  run 
in  a  torrent ;  but  if  I  let  you  dig  a  little  trench 
along  across  the  neck,  so  as  to  let  it  off  by 
degrees,  you  will  not  take  half  as  much 
pleasure  in  seeing  it  run,  as  you  will  to  wait 
until  it  is  all  ready.  So  it  will  spoil  your 
play." 

Rollo  did  not  reply  to  this,  and  Jonas  went 
on  digging. 

"  Well,"  said  Rollo,  after  a  short  pause,  "  I 
wish,  Jonas,  you  would  tell  me  how  the 
bubbles  of  air  get  down  into  the  mud,  at  the 
bottom  of  the  brook." 

"  I  don't  know,"  said  Jonas. 

"  It  seems  to  me  it  is  very  extraordinary," 
said  Rollo. 

"It  is  somewhat  extraordinary.  I  have 
thought  of  another  extraordinary  phenome- 
non somewhat  like  it." 

"  What  is  that  ?  "  said  Rollo. 


THE    CANAL.  29 

"  The  rain,"  replied  Jonas. 

"  The  rain  ?  "  said  Rollo  ;  "  how  ?  " 

"Why,  the  rain,"  replied  Jonas,  "is  water 
coming  down  out  of  the  air ;  and  the  bub- 
bles are  air  coming  up  out  of  the  water." 

"  Then  it  is  exactly  the  opposite  of  it," 
said  Rollo. 

"  Yes,"  said  Jonas. 

"  But  you  said  it  was  like  it." 

"  Well,  and  so  it  is,"  Jonas  replied. 

"  Like  it,  and  yet  exactly  opposite  to  it ! 
Jonas,  that  is  impossible." 

» Why,  yes,"  said  Jonas,  "  the  air  gets 
down  into  the  water,  and  you  wonder  how 
it  can,  when  it  is  so  much  lighter  than  water. 
So  water  gets  up  into  the  air,  and  I  wonder 
how  it  can,  when  it  is  so  much  heavier. 
So  that  the  difficulty  is  just  about  the  same." 

"No,"  said  Rollo,  "it  is  just  about  oppo- 
site." 

"Very  well,"  said  Jonas.  Jonas  never 
would  dispute.  Whenever  any  body  said 
any  thing  that  he  did  not  think  was  correct, 
he  would  sometimes  try  to  explain  it ;  but 
then,  if  they  persisted,  he  would  generally 
say  "  Yery  well,"  and  that  would  prevent  all 
dispute.  This  is  an  excellent  way  to  pre- 
3* 


30  THE    CANAL. 

vent  disputes,  or  to  end  them  when  they  are 
begun. 

While  Jonas  was  digging  slowly  along 
through  the  neck  of  land,  Rollo  was  rambling 
about  among  the  bushes,  and  at  length  Jonas 
heard  a  sudden  scream  from  him.  Jonas 
looked  up,  and  saw  Rollo  scrambling  away 
from  a  little  thicket,  and  then  presently 
stopping  to  look  back,  apparently  frightened. 

"  What  now,  Rollo?  "  said  Jonas. 

"  Here  is  a  great  hornets'  nest,"  said  Rollo. 

Jonas  laid  down  his  spade,  and  went  to 
where  Rollo  was.  Rollo  pointed  to  a  little 
bush,  where  Jonas  saw,  hanging  to  a  bough, 
not  far  from  the  ground,  a  small  hornets' 
nest,  about  as  big  as  a  common  snow-ball, 
and  as  round.  Jonas  walked  slowly  up 
towards  it,  watching  it  very  attentively,  as 
he  advanced. 

"  O  Jonas  !  Jonas !  "  exclaimed  Rollo, 
"  you'd  better  be  careful.  Jonas  !  Jonas  ! 
you'll  get  stung." 

Jonas  paid  no  attention  to  what  Rollo  was 
saying,  but  still  kept  moving  slowly  on 
towards  the  bush.  When  he  got  pretty  near, 
he  took  his  knife  out  of  his  pocket,  and 
advancing  one  step  more,  he  took  hold  of  the 


THE    CANAL.  31 

end  of  the  branch  with  one  hand,  and  cut  it 
off  close  to  the  tree,  with  the  other.  Rollo,  in 
the  mean  time,  had  run  backwards  several 
steps  to  avoid  the  danger;  still,  however, 
keeping  his  eyes  fixed  upon  Jonas. 

Jonas  brought  the  nest  out  of  the  thicket. 

"Jonas!"  said  Rollo,  in  a  tone  of  strong 
remonstrance,  "  you  are  crazy." 

"  There  are  no  hornets  in  it,"  said  Jonas, 
quietly. 

He  brought  out  the  nest,  and  held  it  so  that 
he  and  Rollo  could  see  it. 

"  The  hornets  have  made  it  of  brown 
paper,"  said  he. 

"  Brown  paper,"  said  Rollo.  "  Where  do 
they  get  the  brown  paper?  " 

"  O,  they  make  the  brown  paper  too." 

"  Ho  !  "  said  Rollo  ;  "  hornets  can't  make 
paper." 

"  Think  not  ?  "  said  Jonas.  Jonas  was 
always  careful  not  to  contradict,  even  when 
he  supposed  that  Rollo  was  mistaken. 

Rollo  said  he  was  sure  that  hornets  could 
not  make  paper.  Then  Jonas  took  off  a 
little  shred  from  the  hornets'  nest,  and  com- 
pared it  with  some  brown  paper  which  he 
had  in  his  pocket  \  and  he  explained  to  Rollo 


32  THE    CANAL. 

that  the  hornets'  nest  was  made  of  little 
fibres  adhering  to  each  other,  just  as  the 
fibres  of  the  paper  did. 

"It  is  the  same  article,"  he  said,  "and 
made  of  the  same  materials  ;  only  they  man- 
ufacture it  in  a  different  way.  So  I  don't 
see  why  it  is  not  proper  to  call  it  paper." 

"  7"  don't  think  it  is  paper,"  said  Rollo ; 
"  nothing  is  paper  but  what  men  make." 

"Very  well,"  said  Jonas,  "we  won't  dis- 
pute about  the  name." 

So  Jonas  returned  to  his  work,  and  Rollo 
said  that  he  meant  to  carry  the  hornets'  nest 
home,  and  show  it  to  Nathan.  He  accord- 
ingly laid  it  down  by  the  side  of  his  fire, 
near  the  dipper  and  the  raspberry  seeds. 

In  a  short  time,  Jonas  reduced  the  neck  of 
ground,  where  he  was  digging,  to  a  very  nar- 
row wall,  and  he  called  Rollo  to  come  and 
see  him  let  out  the  water.  He  took  the 
shovel,  and  he  told  Rollo  to  take  the  hoe,  so 
that,  as  soon  as  he  should  break  down  this 
wall,  they  could  both  be  at  work,  digging 
out  the  passage  way,  so  as  to  get  it  cleared 
as  soon  as  possible. 

He  accordingly  began,  and  soon  made  a 
breach,    through   which   the   water   rushed 


THE  CANAL.  33 

with  considerable  force  into  the  canal,  and 
then  wandered  along  rapidly  towards  the  out- 
let into  the  brook.  Rollo  pulled  away  with  his 
hoe,  hauling  out  mud,  moss,  grass,  and  water, 
up  upon  the  bank  where  he  stood  ;  and  Jonas 
also  kept  at  work  clearing  the  passage  with 
the  spade.  In  a  short  time  they  had  got  a 
fine,  free  course  for  the  water,  and  then  they 
stood  still,  one  on  each  side  of  the  bank, 
watching  the  torrent  as  it  poured  through. 

At  length,  the  water  in  the  pool  began  to 
subside  gradually,  and  then  it  did  not  run  so 
fast  through  the  canal ;  and  pretty  soon  after 
this,  Jonas  said  he  thought  it  was  time  for 
them  to  go  home  to  dinner.  So  Rollo  put 
up  his  raspberry  seeds  in  a  paper,  and  put 
them  into  his  pocket,  and  carried  his  hornets' 
nest  in  his  hand.  Jonas  took  the  dipper  and 
the  lantern,  and  thus  the  boys  walked  along 
together. 


34 


A    FALSE    ALARM. 


As  Rollo  and  Jonas  walked  along  towards 
home,  Rollo  told  Jonas  that  he  thought  he 
had  been  very  successful  in  collecting  curi- 
osities that  day. 

"  Why,  what  curiosities  have  you  got  be- 
sides your  hornets'  nest?  "  asked  Jonas. 

"  Why,  there  are  my  raspberry  seeds," 
said  Rollo;  "I  think  they  are  a  curiosity; 
and  besides  that,  I  have  got  some  very  beau- 
tiful, bright  pebbles  in  my  pocket." 

"  Let  us  see  them,"  said  Jonas. 

So  Rollo  put  his  hand  into  his  pocket,  and 
drew  forth  several  pebbles ;  but  they  were 
by  no  means  as  beautiful  as  he  had  imagined. 
They  looked  rough  and  dull. 

"They  were  very  bright,  when  I  got 
them,"  said  Rollo. 

"  That  is  because  they  were  wet,"  said 
Jonas.  "  Pebbles  always  look  brightest  and 
most  beautiful  when  they  are  in  their  own 
proper  place,  in  the  brook ;  and  that  is  the 


A    FALSE    ALARM.  35 

reason  why  I  think  it  is  generally  best  to 
leave  them  there." 

Rollo  looked  at  his  faded  pebbles  with  an 
air  of  disappointment.  He  asked  Jonas  if 
there  was  no  way  of  keeping  them  bright  all 
the  time. 

"  I  think  it  probable  that  they  might  be 
oiled,  and  the  oil  would  not  dry." 

"  Ho!  "  said  Rollo,  "I  should  not  like  to 
have  them  oiled." 

"  Nor  I,"  said  Jonas ;  "  I  should  rather 
leave  them  in  the  brook." 

"  But  is  not  there  any  other  way  ? " 

"They  m.ight  be  varnished,"  said  Jonas. 
"  That  would  bring  out  the  colors  j  and  the 
varnish  would  dry,  so  that  you  could  handle 
them." 

«  That  would  do,"  said  Rollo,  "if  I  only 
had  some  varnish." 

"But  the  best  way  is  to  polish  them," 
said  Jonas. 

"  How  is  that  done  ?  "  asked  Rollo. 

"  O,  it  is  very  hard  to  do,"  replied  Jonas. 
"  They  grind  them  on  stones,  and  then  they 
polish  them  on  polishing  wheels." 

"  I  wish  I  could  do  it,"  said  Rollo. 

"  It  is  not  worth  while   to  take  so  much 


36  A   FALSE    ALARM. 

pains  with  any  of  your  curiosities,"  said 
Jonas,  "  because  you  very  soon  get  tired  of 
them,  and  throw  them  away." 

"  O,  no,"  said  Rollo,  "I  never  throw  them 
away." 

"  You  leave  them  lying  about  the  house 
and  yard,  then,  and  so  other  people  throw 
them  away." 

Rollo  knew  that  this  was  true,  and  so  he 
did  not  contradict  Jonas. 

"  It's  not  of  much  use  to  collect  curi- 
osities," said  Jonas,  "  unless  you  have  a 
museum." 

"  A  museum  ? "  said  Rollo. 

i 

"  Yes,  that  is  a  cabinet  to  put  them  in, 
and  keep  them  safe.  Then,  when  you  have 
done  looking  at  them  yourself,  you  put  them 
away  safely ;  and,  after  a  time,  you  get  a 
great  many  collected,  and  you  take  pleasure 
in  looking  them  over  from  time  to  time,  and 
showing  them  to  other  boys  that  come  to 
see  you." 

"Well,"  said  Rollo,  "I  should  like  to 
have  a  museum." 

"  O,  you  could  not  keep  one,"  said  Jonas. 

"  Why  not  ?  "  said  Rollo. 

"  You  have  not  patience  and  perseverance 


A    FALSE    ALARM.  37 

enough.  You  would  be  very  much  pleased 
with  it  for  a  day  or  two ;  but  then  you 
would  get  interested  in  other  plays,  and  let 
your  museum  all  get  into  disorder.7' 

Rollo  was  silent.  He  knew  that  what 
Jonas  said  was  true. 

"  I  don't  know  but  that  your  cousin  Lucy 
might  keep  a  museum,"  said  Jonas;  "she  is 
more  careful  than  you  are." 

a  And  cousin  James  could  help  us  find  the 
curiosities,"  said  Rollo. 

"So  he  could,"  said  Jonas.  "I  think  it 
might  be  a  very  good  plan." 

"  But  what  shall  we  have  for  our  cabinet 
to  put  them  in  ?  "  said  Rollo. 

"  Why,  sometimes  they  have  something 
like  a  book-case,"  replied  Jonas,  "with 
shelves  and  glass  doors.  Then  the  curiosities 
are  all  put  upon  the  shelves,  and  you  can  see 
them  through  the  glass  doors.  But  this  can 
only  be  done  with  very  valuable  curiosities." 

"  Why  ?  "  asked  Rollo. 

"Because  such  a  case,  with  glass  doors, 
costs  a  good  deal  of  money ;  and  it  is  not 
worth  while  to  pay  so  much  money  only  to 
keep  common  things,  such  as  your  pebble 
stones." 

4 


38  A    FALSE    ALARM. 

"  But  we  have  got  such  a  book-case, 
already  made ;  it  is  in  mother's  chamber," 
said  Rollo. 

"  Yes,"  said  Jonas ;  "  but  it  is  full  of 
books.  Sometimes  they  keep  a  museum  in 
the  drawers  of  a  bureau  j  but  that  is  not  a 
very  good  plan." 

"  Why  not  ?  "  said  Rollo. 

"  Because,  when  you  open  and  shut  the 
drawers,  it  joggles  the  curiosities  about." 

"  Does  it  ?  "  said  Rollo. 

"  Yes,"  replied  Jonas.  "  But  there  is  one 
thing  you  can  do  —  I  did  not  think  of  it 
before.  There  is  a  good  large  box  in  the 
barn,  and  I  can  put  some  shelves  into  it,  and 
make  the  cover  into  a  door  ;  and  if  you  want 
to  collect  a  museum,  you  can  do  it  in  that. 
You  can  keep  it  out  in  the  play  room,  and 
so  it  will  not  trouble  any  body  in  the  house." 

Jonas  meant,  by  the  play  room,  a  pretty 
large  room,  in  the  barn,  made  originally  for 
a  sort  of  granary,  but  which  the  children 
were  accustomed  to  use  for  a  play  room. 

Rollo  was  very  much  pleased  with  this 
plan.  He  determined  to  collect  a  museum, 
and  to  put  his  hornets'  nest  in  it  for  the  first 
thing.     As  soon  as  hf  got  home,  as  he  found 


A  FALSE    ALARM.  39 

tnat  dinner  was  not  quite  ready,  he  and 
Jonas  went  out  into  the  barn  to  look  at  the 
box.  It'  was  a  large  box,  which  had  been 
made  to  pack  up  a  bureau  in,  so  that  the 
bureau  should  not  get  injured  in  the  wagon 
which  it  was  brought  home  in.  As  it  hap- 
pened, the  box  was  smooth  inside  and  out, 
and  the  cover  of  it  was  made  of  two  boards, 
which  Jonas  had  taken  off  carefully,  when 
he  took  the  bureau  out,  and  had  then  tacked 
them  on  again;  thinking  that  he  might 
perhaps  want  it  some  time  or  other,  —  box, 
covers,  and  all. 

Now  it  happened,  as  it  generally  does  to 
persons  who  take  care  of  things,  that  the 
article  which  Jonas  thus  preserved,  came  into 
use  exactly.  The  box,  he  said,  would  be  just 
the  thing.  He  showed  Rollo  how  he  could 
place  it  so  that  it  would,  make  a  convenient 
sort  of  cabinet. 

"  I  can  put  it  upon  its  end,"  said  he,  "  and 
then  I  can  put  on  the  two  cover  boards  with 
hinges,  —  one  pair  of  hinges  on  each  side  ; 
then  the  covers  will  make  little  doors,  and 
it  will  open  like  a  book  case,  only  it  will  not 
be  quite  so  elegant.*' 

"  I  think  it  will  be  very  elegant  indeed;'' 


40  A    FALSE    ALARM. 

said  Rollo;  "and  you  can  make  it  for  us 
this  afternoon." 

"  No,"  said  Jonas ;  "  not  this  afternoon." 

"Why  not?"  said  Rollo. 

11  O,  I  must  attend  to  my  work  in  the 
meadow." 

"  O,  no,"  said  Rollo.  "  I  mean  to  ask  my 
father  to  let  you  make  it  this  afternoon." 

"No;  I'd  rather  you  wouldn't,"  said 
Jonas. 

"  Why  not  ?  "  asked  Rollo.  "  I  know  he 
will  let  you." 

"  Yes,  I  suppose  he  would  let  me,  if  you 
were  to  ask  him ;  but  that  would  spoil  the 
museum." 

"  Spoil  it  ?  "  said  Rollo. 

"  Yes,"  said  Jonas.  "  The  way  to  spoil 
any  pleasure  is  to  neglect  duty  for  the  sake 
of  it.  Work  first,  and  play  afterwards. 
That's  the  rule." 

"  Well,  but,  Jonas,  we  want  to  begin  our 
museum  this  afternoon." 

"  Yery  well,"  said  Jonas ;  "  you  may  be- 
gin collecting  your  curiosities,  you  know ; 
and  you  can  put  them  all  in  a  safe  place,  and 
have  them  all  ready  to  put  in  when  I  get  the 
case  made." 


A    FALSE    ALARM.  41 

Rollo  did  not  quite  like  this  plan ;  but  he 
knew  that  Jonas  was  always  firm  when  it 
was  a  question  of  right  and  wrong,  and  so 
he  said  no  more ;  only,  after  a  moment's 
pause,  he  asked  Jonas  when  he  would  make 
the  cabinet. 

"  The  first  rainy  day,"  replied  Jonas. 

"  Then  I  hope  it  will  rain  to-morrow," 
said  Rollo;  and  he  went  out  of  the  barn  to 
see  if  it  was  not  cloudy.  But  the  sun  shone 
bright,  and  the  sky  was  clear  and  serene. 

While  Rollo  was  looking  up  at  the  sky, 
trying  to  find  some  appearance  of  rain,  he 
heard  a  chaise  coming,  and  looking  out  into 
the  road,  he  saw  that  his  cousin  James  was 
in  it. 

"  Ah,"  said  he  to  himself,  "  there  comes 
cousin  James!  Now  I  will  have  a  frolic 
with  him,  by  means  of  my  hornets'  nest." 

So  Rollo  ran  into  the  garden,  and  slyly 
fixed  his  hornets'  nest  up  in  a  lilac  bush  ; 
and  then  ran  out  to  the  front  of  the  house  to 
find  his  cousin.  But  his  cousin  was  no 
where  to  be  found.  The  chaise  was  at  the 
door,  the  horse  being  fastened  to  a  post ;  but 
b*  4* 


42  A   FALSE    ALARM. 

nobody  was  near  it.  So  Rollo  went  into 
the  house  to  see  if  he  could  find  James. 

They  told  him  in  the  house  that  James 
had  gone  through  the  house  into  the  yard, 
in  pursuit  of  Rollo. 

Rollo  then  ran  out  again,  and  at  length 
found  James,  and  after  talking  with  him  a 
minute,  he  said, 

"  Come,  James,  let  us  go  into  the  garden." 

So  they  walked  along  towards  the  garden. 
Rollo  telling  James,  by  the  way,  about  the 
canal  which  Jonas  had  made  that  day.  At 
length,  when  they  reached  the  lilac  bush, 
Rollo  looked  up,  and  started  in  pretended 
fright,  saying, 

"  O  James  !  look  there  !  " 

"  O !  "  exclaimed  James  j  "  it  is  a  hornets' 
nest." 

"  So  'tis,"  said  Rollo  ;   "  run  !  run  !  " 

James  and  Rollo  started  off  at  these  words, 
and  away  they  ran  down  the  alley,  Rollo 
convulsed  with  laughter  at  the  success  of  his 
stratagem.     At  length  they  stopped. 

"Now,  how  shall  we  get  back?"  said 
James.  For  the  lilac,  upon  which  Rollo 
had  put  the  hornets'  nest,  was  close  to  the 
garden  gate. 


A    FALoE    ALARM.  43 

"I  am  not  afraid  to  go,"  said  Rollo. 

So  Rollo  walked  along  boldly  ;  James  fol- 
lowing slowly  and  with  a  timid  air,  remon- 
strating with  Rollo  for  his  temerity. 

"  Rollo!"  said  he,  "  Rollo!  take  care. 
Yon  had  better  not  go." 

But  what  was  his  surprise  and  astonish- 
ment at  seeing  Rollo  go  deliberately  up  to 
the  bush,  and  take  down  the  twig  that  had 
the  hornets'  nest  attached  to  it,  and  hold  it 
out  towards  him ! 

"  I  put  it  up  there,"  said  Rollo.  "  There 
are  no  hornets  in  it." 

Still,  James  was  somewhat  afraid.  He 
knew  of  course,  now,  that  there  could  be  no 
hornets  in  it ;  but,  still,  the  association  of  the 
idea  of  danger  was  so  strong  with  the  sight 
of  a  hornets'  nest,  that  he  could  not  feel  quite 
easy.  At  length,  however,  he  came  up  near 
to  it,  and  examined  it  attentively. 

"  What  made  you  frighten  me  so,  Rollo  ?  " 
said  he. 

"  O,  only  for  fun,"  said  Rollo. 

"  But  you  deceived  me,"  said  James ; 
"  and  I  don't  think  that  that  was  right.  It 
is  never  right  to  deceive." 

u  O,  I  only  did  it  for  fun,"  said  Rollo. 


44  A   FALSE    ALARM. 

James  insisted  upon  it  that  it  was  wrong, 
and  Rollo  that  it  was  not  wrong ;  and  finally 
they  concluded  to  leave  it  to  Jonas.  So 
they  both  went  to  him,  and  told  him  the 
story. 

"  Wasn't  it  wrong  ?  "  asked  James. 

"  It  wasn't  —  was  it  ?  "  said  Rollo. 

"  It  was  deception,"  added  James. 

"  But  it  was  only  in  fun,"  said  Rollo. 

"  One  or  the  other  of  you  must  be  to 
blame,"  said  Jonas. 

"  How  ? "  asked  Rollo. 

"Why,  James  seems  displeased  with  you 
for  frightening  him  so  ;  and  now,  either  you 
must  have  done  wrong,  and  given  him  just 
cause  for  his  displeasure,  or  else,  if  you  did 
right,  then  his  displeasure  is  unreasonable, 
and  so  it  is  ill  humor." 

The  boys  did  not  answer. 

"  So  that  the  question  is,  Did  Rollo  do 
wrong  ?  or,  Is  James  out  of  humor  ?  " 

"  Why,  I  think  deception  is  always  wrong," 
said  James. 

"Did  you  ever  play  blind-man's-buff? n 
asked  Jonas. 

"  Yes,"  replied  James. 

"  And  did  you  ever  go  and  squeak  in  a 


A    FALSE    ALARM.  45 

corner,  and  then  creep  away,  to  make  the 
blind  man  think  you  were  there,  and  so  go 
groping  after  you  ?  " 

"  Why,  yes,"  said  James ;  "  but  that  is  not 
deception." 

"  Why,  don't  you  try  to  make  the  blind 
man  think  you  are  in  the  corner,  when,  in 
fact,  you  have  gone  ? " 

H  Yes,"  said  James: 

"  And  is  not  that  trying  to  deceive  him  ?  " 

"Yes — "  said  James,  hesitating,  "but,  — 
I  think  that  that  is  a  very  different  thing." 

"  How  is  it  different  ?  "  said  Jonas. 

It  is  probable  that  James  would  have  found 
some  difficulty  in  answering  this  question ; 
but,  in  fact,  he  did  not  have  the  opportunity 
to  try,  for,  just  then,  he  heard  some  one 
calling  him,  and  he  and  Rollo  went  into  the 
house.  They  wanted  him  to  go,  and  so  he 
got  into  the  chaise  and  rode  away,  promising 
to  come  and  see  Rollo  in  the  afternoon,  if 
he  could  get  permission.  Soon  after  this, 
Rollo  sat  down,  with  the  rest  of  the  family 
to  dinner.  He  determined  to  commence  in 
earnest  the  work  of  collecting  curiosities  that 
afternoon. 


46 


THE   HEMLOCK-SEED, 


James  came  to  play  with  Rollo  that  after- 
noon, and  Rollo  explained  to  him  his  plan 
of  collecting  a  museum  of  curiosities.  James 
was  very  much  interested  in  it  indeed,  and 
he  said  that  he  had  some  shells  and  some 
Guinea  peas  at  home,  which  he  would  put 
into  it. 

Rollo  went  to  show  him  the  box  out  of 
which  Jonas  was  going  to  make  the  cabinet 
the  first  rainy  day.  Then  the  boys  went 
out  again  to  see  if  there  were  yet  any  signs 
of  a  storm.  But  they  looked  in  vain. 
There  were  no  clouds  to  be  seen,  except 
here  and  there  a  few  of  those  white,  fleecy 
tufts  floating  in  the  heavens,  which  indicate 
fair  weather  rather  than  rain. 

The  boys  played  together  in  the  yard  for 
some  time.  Among  other  things,  they 
amused  themselves  by  collecting  some 
flowers,  and  pressing  them  in  a  book.  Sud- 
denly James  said, 


THE    HEMLOCK-SEED.  47 

"  O  Rollo,  let  us  go  and  get  some  blue- 
bells to  press  ;  they  will  be  beautiful." 

"  Where  ? "  said  Rollo. 

"Among  the  rocks  by  the  road,  beyond 
the  bridge,"  said  James.  "  There  are  plenty 
of  them  among  those  rocks." 

The  place  which  James  referred  to,  was  a 
rocky  precipice  by  the  road  side,  about  a 
quarter  of  a  mile  from  the  house  ;  just  at  the 
entrance  of  a  small  village.  Rollo  approved 
of  the  proposal,  and  he  went  in  and  asked 
his  mother's  permission  to  go. 

She  consented,  and  Rollo,  when  he  came 
back  through  the  kitchen,  said  to  Dorothy, 
who  was  sitting  at  the  window,  sewing, 

"  Dorothy,  we  are  going  to  get  some  blue- 
bells to  press." 

"Ah!"  said  Dorothy.  "Where  are  you 
going  for  them?" 

"  O,  out  by  the  bridge,"  said  Rollo,  as  he 
passed  on  to  go  out  at  the  door. 

"  O  Rollo  !  "  said  she,  calling  out  to  him 
suddenly,  as  if  she  recollected  something  ; 
"  stop  a  minute." 

So  Rollo  came  back  to  hear  what  she  bad 
to  say. 

"  You  are  going  pretty  near  the  village," 


48  THE    HEMLOCK-SEED. 


"Yes,"  saidRollo. 


"  And  could  you  be  so  kind  as  to  do  an 
errand  for  me?" 

"  Yes,"  said  Rollo ;  "  what  is  it  ? " 

Then  Dorothy  went  to  her  work-table, 
and  began  to  open  it,  saying  all  the  time, 

"  I  want  you  to  get  some  medicine  for 
Sarah,  for  she  is  sick." 

Sarah  was  a  friend  of  Dorothy's,  who 
hVed  at  another  house,  not  far  from  Rollo's ; 
and  Rollo  used  sometimes  to  see  her  at  his 
father's,  when  she  came  over  to  see  Dorothy. 
She  was  in  very  feeble  health,  and  now 
wanted  some  medicines.  Dorothy  had  been 
over  at  the  house  where  she  lived  that  day, 
and  had  found  that  the  doctor  had  left  her  a 
prescription ;  but  she  had  nobody  to  send  for 
it,  and  she  was  not  quite  able  to  go  herself. 
So  Dorothy  told  her  that  if  she  would  let 
her  have  the  money,  she  would  ask  Rollo  or 
Jonas  to  go. 

So  Sarah  gave  her  a  dollar  bill,  and  in 
order  to  keep  it  safe,  she  put  it  in  a  little 
morocco  wallet,  and  tied  it  up  securely  with 
a  string.  This  wallet  was  what  Dorothy 
was  looking  for,  in  her  work-table.  She 
took  it   out,  and   untied  the   string.     She 


THE    HEMLOCK-SEED.  49 

opened  the  wallet,  and  showed  Rollo  the 
money  in  one  of  the  pockets,  and  a  small 
piece  of  white  paper,  upon  which  was  written 
the  names  of  the  medicines  which  the  doctor 
wished  Sarah  to  take.  Such  a  writing  is 
called  a  prescription. 

Rollo  looked  at  the  prescription  to  see 
what  sort  of  medicines  it  was  that  he  was  to 
get,  but  he  could  not  read  it.  The  words 
were  short  and  strange,  and  had  periods  at 
the  end  of  them,  —  which  Rollo  told  Doro- 
thy was  wrong,  as  periods  ought  to  be  only 
at  the  end  of  a  sentence.  Then  there  were 
strange  characters  and  marks  at  the  ends 
of  the  lines ;  and  Rollo,  after  examining  it 
attentively,  said  he  could  not  read  a  word  of 
it,  and  he  did  not  believe  that  the  apothecary 
could.  However,  he  said  he  was  willing  to 
take  it  to  him,  and  let  him  try. 

He  accordingly  put  the  prescription  back 
again  carefully  into  the  wallet,  and  Dorothy 
tied  it  up.  Then  he  put  it  into  his  pocket, 
and  went  out  to  James.  He  found  James 
waiting  by  the  gate,  and  they  both  walked 
along  together. 

He  and  James  had  each  a  book  to  put 
their  blue-bells  in.  They  walked  along, 
c  5 


50 


THE    HEMLOCK-SEED. 


talking  about  their  flowers,  until  at  length 
they  reached  the  bridge.  Just  beyond  it 
was  the  rocky  precipice,  with  shrubs  and 
evergreens  growing  upon  the  shelves  and  in 
the  crevices,  and  spaces  between  the  rocks. 
It  towered  up  pretty  high  above  the  road, 
and  the  declivity  extended  also  down  to  the 
brook  below  the  bridge,  forming  one  side  of 
the  deep  ravine  across  which  the  bridge  was 
built.  There  was  a  very  large,  old  hemlock- 
tree  growing  upon  a  small  piece  of  level 
ground  between  the  ravine  and  the  highei 
part  of  the  precipice.  Under  this  hemlock- 
tree  was  a  large,  smooth,  flat  stone,  where 
the  boys  used  very  often  to  come  and  sit, 
when  they  came  to  play  among  these  rocks. 
The  boys  rambled  about  among  the  rocks, 
sometimes  down  in  the  ravine  and  near  the 
brook,  and  sometimes  very  high  up  among 
the  rocks.  They  were  both  pretty  good 
climbers,  and  there  were  no  very  dangerous 
places,  for  there  were  no  high,  perpendicular 
precipices.  They  found  blue-bells  in  abun- 
dance, and  several  other  flowers.  They  also 
found  a  variety  of  brakes,  of  different  forms 
and  colors.  They  determined  to  gather  as 
many  flowers  as  they  could,  and   then   go 


THE    HEMLOCK-SEED.  53 

down  to  the  hemlock-tree,  and  there  look 
them  over,  and  select  those  best  to  be  pressed  ; 
and  then  put  them  carefully  into  their  books 
there.  Then  they  could  carry  them  home 
safely;  they  would,  in  fact,  be  in  press  all 
the  way. 

After  rambling  and  climbing  about  for 
half  an  hour,  the  boys  went  down  to  the  flat 
rock,  under  the  hemlock,  with  large  bunches 
of  plants  and  flowers  in  their  hands.  Here 
they  sat  another  half  hour,  looking  over  their 
specimens,  and  putting  them  into  their  books. 
At  length,  Rollo  picked  up  a  singular-looking 
thing,  which  was  lying  down  by  the  side 
of  the  stone  under  the  tree.  It  was  about 
as  big  as  his  thumb,  and  somewhat  pointed 
at  the  ends.  It  was  black,  and  rather  glossy, 
and  the  surface  was  marked  regularly  with 
little  ridges.  James  could  not  imagine  what 
it  was ;  but  Rollo  told  him  that  he  thought 
it  must  be  a  hemlock-seed.  The  truth  was, 
that  it  was  a  great  chrysalis,  though  Rollo 
did  not  find  it  out  till  long  afterwards. 

"  A  hemlock-seed  !  "  said  James. 

"Yes,"    said   Rollo;    "I   have    seen  the 
cones  which  grow  on  fir-trees,  and  they  are 
a  good  deal  like  this." 
5* 


54  THE    HEMLOCK-SEED. 

"But  they  are  not  so   handsome," 
James. 

"  I  know  it,"  said  Rollo ;  "  they  are  not  so 
handsome.  This  is  the  most  beautiful  one 
I  ever  saw." 

"  We  can  plant  it,"  said  James,  "  next 
spring." 

"Yes,"  said  Rollo;  "and  then  we  can 
have  a  great  hemlock-tree  near  our  house." 

"  But  we  shall  have  to  wait  a  great  many 
years,"  said  James. 

"  O,  no,  not  a  great  many,"  said  Rollo. 
"  It  is  such  a  great  seed,  I  think  it  would 
grow  pretty  fast." 

But  James  did  not  like  the  idea  of  planting 
it  very  well.  He  proposed  that  they  should 
keep  it,  for  a  curiosity,  in  their  museum. 
Rollo  insisted,  at  first,  upon  planting  it ;  but 
at  length,  reflecting  that  it  was  not  then  the 
right  season  to  plant  it,  he  concluded  to  put  it 
into  the  museum,  with  his  raspberry-seeds, 
until  the  next  spring,  and  to  plant  it  then. 

So  Rollo  put  the  hemlock-seed  into  his 
pocket,  and  he  and  James  took  their  books 
under  their  arms,  with  a  great  many  flowers 
and  plants  carefully  placed  between  the 
leaves,  and  walked  along  towards  the  village. 


THE    HEMLOCK-SEED.  55 

When  they  arrived  at  the  apothecary's,  Rollo 
put  his  book  down  upon  the  counter,  and 
then  took  the  wallet  from  his  pocket,  and 
untied  the  string,  and  took  the  prescription 
out,  and  handed  it  to  the  apothecary.  The 
apothecary  was  talking  with  another  man, 
at  the  time  ;  but  he  took  the  prescription, 
and  Rollo  watched  his  countenance  to  see 
how  perplexed  and  puzzled  he  would  look, 
when  he  tried  to  read  it.  Instead,  however, 
of  appearing  perplexed  and  puzzled,  the 
apothecary  only  glanced  his  eye  over  it,  and 
laid  it  down  upon  the  counter,  and  immedi- 
ately began  to  look  upon  his  shelves  to  find 
the  articles. 

"  That's  strange!"  said  Rollo  to  himself. 
He  reads  it  as  easily  as  I  should  a  guide 
board." 

While  the  apothecary  was  weighing  out 
his  medicines,  Rollo  was  very  much  inter- 
ested in  looking  at  the  little  pair  of  scales  in 
which  he  weighed  them.  Rollo  never  had 
seen  so  small  a  pair  of  scales.  The  weights, 
too,  were  small,  square  weights  of  brass,  with 
little  figures  stamped  upon  them.  He  asked 
the  apothecary  what  such  scales  as  tiiose 
would  cost.     He  answered  that  they  were 


66  THE    HEMLOCK-SEED. 

of  various  prices,  from  one  dollar  to  five. 
Rollo  thought  that  that  was  too  much  for 
him  to  give ;  but  while  he  was  thinking 
whether  his  father  would  probably  be  willing 
to  let  him  have  a  dollar  to  buy  a  pair  with, 
James  said  that  he  wished  he  had  such  a 
pair  of  scales. 

"So  do  I,"  said  Rollo;  "then  we  could 
play  keep  store.  We  could  have  our  store 
out -in  the  play  room,  and  weigh  things." 

"  So  we  could,"  said  James.  "We  could 
put  a  long  board  upon  two  barrels  for  a 
counter." 

"  O,  you  must  make  your  scales,  boys," 
said  the  apothecary. 

"  How  can  we  make  them  ?  "  said  Rollo. 

"  Why,  you  can  get  a  good,  stout  knitting- 
needle  for  a  beam.  Tie  a  silk  thread  around 
the  middle  of  it  to  hold  it  up  by,  and  slip  it 
along  until  you  get  it  so  that  the  needle  will 
exactly  balance.  Then  for  scales,  you  must 
cut  out  two  round  pieces  of  thin  pasteboard. 
Then  take  three  threads  for  each  scale,  and 
run  them  through  the  pasteboard,  near  the 
edge,  and  at  equal  distances  from  each  other. 
You  must  tie  knots  at  the  lower  ends  of  the 
threads  to  keep  them  from  drawing  through. 


THE    HEMLOCK-SEED.  57 

Then  you  must  gather  the  other  ends  of  the 
threads  together,  about  half  a  foot  from  the 
pasteboard,  and  tie  them  to  the  ends  of  the 
knitting-needle,  one  on  each  side  ;  and  that 
will  make  a  very  respectable  pair  of  scales 
for  you." 

"  But  what  shall  we  do  for  weights  ? " 
asked  Rollo. 

"  O,  weights !  — yes,  you  must  have  some 
weights.  You  must  make  them  of  lead.  I 
will  show  you  how." 

So  the  apothecary  took  a  small  piece  of 
sheet  lead,  rather  thin,  and  cut  off  a  little 
square  of  it.  He  then  put  it  into  one  of  his 
scale  balances,  and  put  a  thin,  square  weight 
of  brass,  similar  to  it,  into  the  other  scale. 
The  lead  weight  was  a  little  too  heavy.  He 
then  clipped  off  a  very  little  with  his  scissors. 
This  made  it  about  right.  Then,  with  the 
point  of  his  scissors,  he  scratched  a  figure  1 
upon  it.  "There,"  said  he,  "boys,  there  is 
a  standard  for  you." 

"  What  is  a  standard  ?  "  said  Rollo,  taking 
up  the  weight. 

"  Why,  it  is  a  weight  made  exactly  cor- 
rect, for  you  to  keep,  and  make  yours  by. 
It  is  a  one-grain  weight.     I  will  give  yon 


58  THE    HEMLOCK-SEED. 

some  sheet  lead,  and  when  you  get  home 
and  have  made  your  scales,  you  can  cut  off 
another  piece,  and  weigh  it  by  that,  and 
so  you  will  have  two  one-grain  weights. 
Then  you  can  put  those  two  into  one  scale, 
and  a  piece  of  lead  as  big  as  both  of  them 
into  the  other  scale,  and  when  you  have 
made  it  exactly  as  heavy  as  both  of  the 
others,  you  must  mark  a  figure  2  upon  it, 
and  then  you  will  have  a  two-grain  weight. 
In  the  same  way  you  can  make  a  five-grain 
weight,  and  a  ten-grain  weight,  and  a  penny- 
weight." 

"  What  is  a  pennyweight  ?  "  said  Rollo. 

"It  is  a  weight  as  heavy  as  twenty-four 
grains." 

"  The  pennyweight  will  be  very  big, 
then,"  said  Rollo. 

"  Yes,"  said  the  apothecary  ;  "  but  you  can 
take  a  little  strip  of  lead  like  a  ribbon,  and 
then  roll  it  up,  when  you  have  made  it  just 
heavy  enough,  and  then  it  will  not  take  up 
much  room.  So  you  can  make  another  roll 
for  two  pennyweights,  and  another  for  five 
pennyweights,  and  another  for  ten  penny- 
weights." 


THE    HEMLOCK-SEED.  59 

"  And  another  for  twenty  pennyweights," 
said  James. 

"  Yes  j  only  twenty  pennyweights  make 
an  ounce.  So  you  will  call  that  an  ounce 
weight.  But  you  cannot  weigh  more  than 
an  ounce,  I  should  think,  in  your  knitting- 
needle  scales." 

By  this  time  the  apothecary  had  put  up 
the  medicines,  and  he  gave  them  to  Rollo. 
There  was  a  middle-sized  parcel,  and  a  very 
small  parcel,  and  small,  round  box.  Rollo 
put  them  all  into  the  pocket  of  his  panta- 
loons. Then  he  opened  his  wallet,  and  took 
out  the  bill,  and  gave  it  to  the  apothecary. 
The  apothecary  handed  him  the  change.  It 
was  half  a  dollar,  and  one  small  piece  of 
silver  besides.  Rollo  put  the  change  back 
into  the  wallet,  and  tied  it  up  just  as  it  had 
been  before,  and  then  crowded  the  wallet 
back  into  his  pocket,  by  the  side  of  the 
parcels  which  the  apothecary  had  given 
him. 


60 


A   LITTLE    LAW. 

That  evening,  when  Rollo's  father  came 
home,  he  went  out  at  the  door  leading  to  the 
garden  yard,  and  looked  into  the  yard  to  see 
if  Rollo  was  there.     He  was  not  to  he  seen. 

His  father  then  took  the  hell  which 
always  hung  in  the  entry,  and  began  to  ring 
it  at  the  door.  This  bell  was  the  one  that 
was  rung  for  breakfast,  dinner,  and  supper ; 
and  when  Rollo  was  out,  they  generally 
called  him  in,  by  ringing  it  at  the  door. 

While  Rollo's  father  was  ringing  the  bell, 
Dorothy  opened  the  door  which  led  from 
the  kitchen  into  the  entry,  and  said  to  Rollo's 
father, 

"  Are  you  ringing  for  Rollo,  sir  ?  " 

"  Yes,"  he  replied. 

u  He  has  gone  to  the  village,"  said  Doro- 
thy. "He  has  gone  back  to  look  for  a 
pocket-book,  which  he  dropped,  coming 
home,  or  else  left  at  the  apothecary's." 


A    LITTLE    LAW.  61 

"  A  pocket-book  ? "  said  his  father,  with 
surprise. 

"  Yes,  sir,"  said  Dorothy.  "  He  went  to 
get  some  medicine  for  Sarah,  and,  when  he 
came  home,  the  pocket-book  was  missing." 

"  Was  there  any  money  in  it? "  said  he. 

"Yes,  sir,"  replied  Dorothy. 

"How  much? " 

"  I  don't  know,  sir,  how  much." 

Rollo's  father  then  put  the  bell  back  into 
its  place,  and  walked  again  into  the  parlor. 
He  was  afraid  that  there  was  a  good  deal  of 
money  in  the  pocket-book,  and  that  it  was 
all  lost. 

He,  however,  went  on  attending  to  his  own 
business,  until  by  and  by  he  heard  Rollo's 
voice  in  the  kitchen.  He  called  him  in. 
Rollo  and  James  came  in  together. 

"Have  you  found  the  pocket-book?" 
asked  Mr.  Holiday. 

"No,  sir,"  said  Rollo  ;  "  I  have  looked  all 
along  the  road,  and  inquired  at  the  apothe- 
cary's ;  but  I  can't  find  any  thing  of  it." 

"  Well,  now,  I  want  you  to  tell  me  the 

whole   story ;   and   especially,  if  you  have 

done  wrong   about   it,  in   any   way,  don't 

attempt  to  smooth  and  gloss  it  over,  but  tell 

6 


62  A    LITTLE    LAW. 

me  that  part  more  plainly  and  distinctly  and 
fully  than  any  other." 

"  Well,  sir,"  said  Rollo,  with  a  very  serious 
air,  "  I  will. 

"  We  went  to  the  apothecary's  to  get  some 
medicines  for  Sarah.  When  I  was  there,  I 
put  the  change  in  the  wallet,  and  put  the 
wallet  in  this  pocket." 

"  It  was  a  wallet,  then,"  said  his  father. 

"  Yes,"  replied  Rollo,  M  a  wallet,  or  a  small 
pocket-book.  I  suppose  now,  that  it  would 
have  been  better  to  have  put  it  in  some  other 
pocket  j  because  that  was  pretty  full.  So 
in  that,  I  suppose,  I  did  wrong.  Then  James 
and  I  came  home,  only  we  did  not  walk 
along  directly  ;  we  played  about  a  little  from 
one  side  of  the  road  to  the  other,  and  then 
we  went  under  the  great  hemlock-tree,  to  see 
if  we  could  not  find  another  hemlock-seed." 

"Another  hemlock-seed  ?  "  said  his  father. 

"Yes,  sir,"  said  Rollo ;  "I  suppose  it  is  a 
hemlock-seed." 

"  What  was  it  ?  a  sort  of  a  cone  ?  " 

"  Yes,  sir,"  said  Rollo  j  "  with  ridges 
upon  it." 

Now  it  is  true  that  pines,  firs,  and  other 
evergreens  bear  a  sort  of  cone,  which  contain* 


A    LITTLE    LAW.  63 

their  seed  j  and  Hollo's  father  thought,  from 
Rollo's  description,  that  it  was  one  of  these 
cones  which  Rollo  had  found.  In  fact,  the 
cone  was  somewhat  similar  in  shape,  though, 
if  he  had  shown  it  to  his  father,  he  would 
have  known  immediately  that  it  was  a  very 
different  thing.  Rollo  put  his  hand  into  his 
pocket  to  show  the  supposed  hemlock-seed 
to  his  father,  but  it  was  not  there.  He  had 
left  it  out  in  the  play  room. 

"  Very  well,"  said  his  father,  "  I  don't 
know  that  I  ever  saw  the  cone  of  the  hem- 
lock ;  but,  very  probably,  this  is  one  of  them. 
But  go  on,  about  the  pocket-book." 

"  Well,  sir,  — when  we  got  home,  I  took 
out  the  medicines,  but  the  pocket-book  was 
nowhere  to  be  found ;  and  I  have  been  back 
with  James,  and  we  have  looked  all  along 
the  road,  and  under  the  hemlock-tree,  and 
we  have  inquired  at  the  apothecary's  ;  but  we 
cannot  find  it  any  where." 

"  How  much  money  was  there  in  the 
wallet  ? "  said  his  father. 

"Half  a  dollar,  and  a  little  more,"  said 
Rollo. 

Rollo's  father  felt  somewhat  relieved  at 
finding  that  the  loss  was,  after  all,  not  very 


64  A    LITTLE    LAW. 

large.  He  placed  confidence  in  Rollo's  ac- 
count of  the  facts,  and  having  thus  ascer- 
tained how  the  case  stood,  he  began  to 
consider  what  was  to  be- done. 

"It  is  a  case  of  bailment,"  said  he  to 
Rollo,  "  and  the  question  is,  whether  you  are 
liable." 

"  A  case  of  what  ?  "  said  Rollo. 

u  Bailment,"  said  his  father.  "  When  one 
person  intrusts  another  with  his  property  for 
any  purpose,  it  is  called  bailing  it  to  him. 
The  wallet  and  the  money  were  bailed  to 
you.  The  law  relating  to  such  transactions 
is  called  the  law  of  bailment.  And  the 
question  is,  whether,  according  to  the  law  of 
bailment,  you  ought  to  pay  for  this  loss." 

Rollo  seemed  surprised  at  such  a  serious 
and  legal  view  of  the  subject  being  taken ; 
he  waited,  however,  to  hear  what  more  his 
father  had  to  say. 

"  I  don't  suppose,"  continued  his  father, 
"  that  Sarah  will  commence  an  action  against 
you;  but  law  is  generally  justice,  and  to 
know  what  we  ought  to  do  in  cases  like  this, 
it  is  generally  best  to  inquire  what  the  law 
requires  us  to  do." 

"  Well,  sir,"  said  Rollo,  "  and  how  is  it  ?  " 


A   LITTLE    LAW.  65 

"  Why,  you  see,"  said  his  father,  "  there 
are  various  kinds  of  bailments.  A  thing 
may  be  bailed  to  you  for  your  benefit ;  as,  for 
instance,  if  James  were  to  lend  you  his  knife, 
the  knife  would  be  a  bailment  to  you  for 
your  benefit.  But  if  he  were  to  ask  you  to 
carry  his  knife  somewhere  to  be  mended, 
and  you  should  take  it,  then  it  would  be  a 
bailment  to  you  for  his  benefit." 

"  Well,  sir,  I  took  the  wallet  for  Sarah's 
benefit,  not  mine,"  said  Rollo. 

"  The  law  requires,"  continued  his  father, 
"  that  you  should  take  greater  care  of  any 
thing,  if  it  is  bailed  to  you  for  your  benefit, 
than  it  does  if  it  is  for  the  benefit  of  the 
bailor.  For  instance,  if  you  were  to  borrow 
James's  knife  for  your  own  benefit,  and  were 
to  lose  it,  even  without  any  special  careless- 
ness, you  ought  to  get  him  another;  for  it 
was  solely  for  your  advantage,  that  you  took 
it,  and  so  it  ought  to  be  at  your  risk.  But 
if  he  asked  you  to  take  the  knife  to  get  it 
mended  for  his  benefit ;  then,  if  you  accident- 
ally lose  it,  without  any  particular  careless- 
ness, you  ought  not  to  pay  for  it ;  for  it  was 
placed  in  your  hands  for  his  advantage,  and 
so  it  ought  to  be  at  his  risk" 
c*  6* 


66  A    LITTLE    LAW. 

"  Well,"  said  Rollo,  "  the  wallet  was  given 
to  me  for  Sarah's  advantage,  not  mine  ;  and 
so  I  ought  not  to  pay  for  it." 

"  That  depends  upon  whether  it  was  lost 
through  gross  carelessness,  or  not.  For  when 
any  thing  is  bailed  to  you  for  the  benefit  of 
the  owner,  if  it  is  lost  or  injured  through 
gross  carelessness,  then  the  law  makes  you 
liable.  As,  for  instance,  suppose  you  take 
James's  knife  to  get  it  mended,  and  on  your 
way  you  throw  it  over  the  fence  among  the 
grass,  and  then  cannot  find  it,  you  ought  to 
pay  for  it ;  for  you  were  bound  to  take  good 
ordinary  care  of  it." 

"Well,  sir,"  said  Rollo. 

"Well,"  repeated  his  father,  "now  as 
this  property  was  bailed  to  you  solely  for  the 
advantage  of  the  bailor,  the  question  whether 
you  ought  to  pay  for  the  loss  of  it,  depends 
on  whether  you  was  grossly  careless,  or  not. 
If  you  took  good  ordinary  care,  and  it  was 
lost  by  accident,  then  you  are  not  liable." 

"Well,  father,  I  think  it  was  accident; 
I  do,  truly." 

"  I  rather  think  so  myself,"  said  his  father, 
with  a  smile,  "  and  I  am  inclined  to  think 
that  you  are  not  responsible.     If  any  body 


A    LITTLE    LAW.  67 

asks  a  boy  like  you  to  carry  money  for  them, 
gratuitously,  then  they  take  themselves  the 
ordinary  risks  of  such  a  conveyance,  and  I 
think  that,  on  the  whole,  this  accident  comes 
within  the  ordinary  risks.  There  was  not 
such  gross  carelessness  as  to  make  you 
liable.  But  then  I  am  very  sorry  to  have 
Sarah  lose  her  money." 

"  So  am  I,"  said  Rollo.  "  And  the  wallet 
is  gone  too." 

"How  good  a  wallet  was  it?"  asked  his 
father. 

"  O,  pretty  good  ;  only  it  was  considerably 
worn." 

"Haven't  you  got  one  that  is  pretty 
much  the  same,  that  you  don't  care  a  great 
deal  about  ? " 

"  Yes,  sir,"  said  Rollo ;  "it  is  in  my  desk. 
I  had  as  lief  that  she  would  have  it  as  not." 

"  Yery  well,"  said  his  father;  "you  give 
her  your  wallet,  and  I  will  replace  the 
money." 

So  Rollo  went  to  his  desk,  and  soon  came 
back,  bringing  his  little  wallet.  He  unfast- 
ened its  steel  clasp,  and  opened  the  wallet, 
and  took  out  some  little  pictures  which  he 
had   treasured   up  there,    and    some    small 


68  A    LITTLE    LAW. 

pieces  of  white  paper,  which  he  said  were 
marks.  They  were  to  put  into  his  books  to 
keep  the  place,  when  he  was  reading.  He 
had  got  quite  a  quantity  of  them  all  pre- 
pared for  use.  When  Rollo  had  got  his 
wallet  ready,  his  father  took  out  half  a  dollar 
from  his  pocket,  and  also  another  small  silver 
coin,  about  as  large  as  Rollo  said  the  one 
was,  which  was  lost ;  and  then  sent  Rollo 
to  carry  it  to  Dorothy. 

In  a  few  minutes,  Rollo  came  back  with 
the  money  in  his  hand,  and  said, 

"  She  won't  take  it.  She  said  I  must 
bring  it  back.  It  was  as  much  as  I  could 
do  to  get  her  to  take  the  wallet." 

"  But  she  must  take  it,"  replied  his  father. 
"  You  carry  it  to  her  again,  and  tell  her  she 
has  nothing  to  do  with  the  business.  The 
money  is  for  Sarah,  and  she  must  not  refuse 
it,  but  take  it  and  give  it  to  her  the  first 
opportunity." 

So  Rollo  carried  the  money  again  to 
Dorothy.  She  received  it  this  time,  and  put 
it  in  the  wallet,  and  then  deposited  both  in 
a  safe  place  in  her  work-table.  Then  Rollo 
came  back  to  his  father  to  ask  him  a  little 
more  about  bailments. 


A    LITTLE    LAW.  69 

"  Father,"  said  Rollo,  when  he  came  back, 
"  if  James  should  give  me  his  knife,  or  any 
thing,  for  my  own,  would  that  be  a  bail- 
ment ? " 

"  No,"  said  his  father.  "  A  bailment  is 
only  where  property  is  intrusted  to  another, 
for  a  certain  purpose,  to  be  returned  again  to 
the  possession  of  the  owner,  when  the  pur- 
pose is  accomplished.  For  instance,  when 
Jonas  is  sawing  wood  with  my  saw,  the  saw 
is  a  bailment  from  me  to  him ;  it  remains 
my  property  ;  but  he  is  to  use  it  for  a  specific 
purpose,  and  then  return  it  to  my  posses- 
sion." 

"  He  does  not  bring  it  back  to  you,"  said 
Rollo. 

"  No,  but  he  hangs  it  up  in  its  place  in  my 
shed,  which  is  putting  it  again  in  my  posses- 
sion. And  so  all  the  things  which  Dorothy 
uses  in  the  kitchen  are  bailments." 

"  And  if  she  breaks  them,  must  she  pay 
for  them  ? " 

"No,  not  unless  she  is  grossly  careless. 
If  she  exercises  good  ordinary  care,  such  as 
prudent  persons  exercise  about  their  own 
things,  then  she  is  not  liable,  because  she  is 
using  them  mainly  for  my  benefit,  and  of 


70  A    LITTLE    LAW. 

course  it  must  be  at  my  risk.  But  if  Sarah 
should  come  and  borrow  a  pitcher  to  carry 
some  milk  home  in,  and  should  let  it  fall 
and  break  it  by  the  way,  even  if  it  was  not 
gross  carelessness,  she  ought  to  pay  for  it  ; 
that  is,  the  person  that  sent  her  ought  to  pay 
for  it,  for  it  was  bailed  to  her  for  her  benefit 
alone ;  and  therefore  it  was  at  her  risk." 

"  I  should  not  think  you  would  make  her 
pay  for  it,"  said  Rollo. 

"No,  I  certainly  should  not.  I  am  only 
telling  what  I  should  have  a  right  to  do  if  I 
shose. 

"  Sometimes  a  thing  is  bailed  to  a  person," 
continued  Rollo 's  father,  "  for  the  benefit  of 
both  persons,  the  bailor  and  the  bailee." 

"  The  bailee  ?  "  said  James. 

"  Yes,  the  bailee  is  the  person  the  thing 
is  bailed  to.  For  instance,  if  I  leave  my 
watch  at  the  watchmaker's  to  be  mended, 
and  I  am  going  to  pay  him  for  it,  in  that 
case  you  see  it  is  for  his  advantage  and 
mine  too." 

"And  then,  if  it  is  lost,  must  he  pay 
for  it  ? " 

"  Yes ;  unless  he  takes  good  care  of  it. 
If  it  is  for  his  benefit  alone,  then  he  must 


A    LITTLE    LAW.  71 

take  special  care  of  it,  or  else  he  is  liable  for 
the  loss  of  it.  If  it  is  for  my  benefit  alone, 
then  he  must  take  ordinary  care  of  it.  For 
instance,  suppose  I  had  a  very  superior 
repeater  watch,  which  the  watchmaker 
should  come  and  borrow  of  me,  in  order  to 
see  the  construction  of  it.  Then  suppose  I 
should  leave  another  watch  of  mine,  —  a 
lever,  —  at  his  shop  to  be  repaired.  Suppose 
also  I  should  have  a  third  watch,  a  lady's 
watch,  which  I  had  just  bought  somewhere, 
and  I  should  ask  him  to  be  kind  enough  to 
keep  it  for  me,  a  day  or  two,  till  my  watch 
was  done.  These  would  be  three  different 
kinds  of  bailments.  The  repeater  would  be 
bailed  to  him  for  his  benefit ;  the  lever  for 
his  and  mine  jointly,  and  the  lady's  watch 
for  my  benefit  alone. 

"  Now,  you  see,"  continued  Hollo's  father, 
"  that  if  these  watches  should  get  lost  or 
injured  in  any  way,  the  question  whether 
the  watchmaker  would  have  to  pay  for  them 
or  not,  would  depend  upon  the  degree  of  care 
it  would  have  required  to  save  them.  For 
instance,  if  he  locked  them  all  up  with 
special  care,  and  particularly  the  repeater, 
and  then   the   building   were   struck   with 


72  A    LITTLE    LAW. 

lightning  and  the  watches  all  destroyed,  he 
would  not  have  to  pay  for  any  of  them ;  for 
this  would  be  an  inevitable  accident,  which 
all  his  care  could  not  guard  against.  It 
would  have  been  as  likely  to  have  happened 
to  my  repeater,  if  I  had  kept  it  at  home. 

"But  suppose  now  he  should  hang  all 
three  watches  up  at  his  window,  and  a  boy 
in  the  street  should  accidentally  throw  a 
stone  and  hit  the  window,  so  that  the  stone 
should  go  through  the  glass  and  break  one 
of  the  watches.  Now,  if  the  repeater  was 
the  one  that  was  hit,  I  should  think  the  man 
would  be  bound  to  pay  for  it :  because  he 
was  bound  to  take  very  special  care  of  that, 
as  it  was  borrowed  for  his  benefit  alone.  But 
if  it  was  the  lady's  watch,  which  he  had 
taken  only  as  an  accommodation  to  me,  then 
he  would  not  be  obliged  to  pay:  for.  by 
hanging  it  up  with  his  other  watches,  he 
took  ordinary  care  of  it,  and  that  was  all 
that  he  was  obliged  to  take." 

"  I  should  think,"  said  James.  "  that  the 
boy  would  have  to  pay,  if  he  broke  the 
watches." 

"  Yes,"  said  Rollo's  father ;  "  but  we  have 
nothing  to  do  with  the  boy  now  we  are  only 


A    LITTLE    LAW.  73 

considering  the  liabilities  of  the  watch- 
maker." 

"  And  if  it  had  been  the  lever  that  was 
broken,"  asked  Rollo,  "  what  then  ?  " 

"  Why,  as  to  the  lever,"  said  his  father, 
"  he  was  bound  to  take  good  care  of  it,  — 
something  more  than  mere  ordinary  care  ; 
and  I  don't  know  whether  the  law  would 
consider  hanging  watches  up  at  a  window 
as  good  care  or  not.  It  would  depend  upon 
that,  I  suppose.  But  the  watches  might  be 
lost  in  another  way.  Suppose  the  watch- 
maker had  sent  the  repeater  home  to  me, 
and  then,  at  night,  had  put  the  lever  and  the 
lady's  watch  into  a  small  trunk  with  his 
other  watches,  and  carried  them  to  his  house, 
as  watchmakers  do  sometimes.  Now  sup- 
pose that,  when  he  got  home,  he  put  the 
trunk  of  watches  down  in  a  corner  of  the 
room ;  and  suppose  that  there  was  a  leak  in 
the  roof  of  his  house,  so  that  the  water  could 
come  in  sometimes  when  it  rained.  In  the 
night  there  comes  up  a  shower,  and  the 
water  gets  into  the  trunk,  and  rusts  and 
spoils  the  watches.  Now  I  think  it  probable 
that  he  would  not  have  to  pay  for  the  lady's 
watch,  for  he  took  ordinary  eare  of  that,  — 
d  7 


74  A    LITTLE    LAW. 

that  is,  the  same  care  that  he  was  accustomed 
to  take  of  his  own  watches.  But  he  might 
have  to  pay  for  the  other  ;  for  he  was  bound 
to  take  good  care  of  that  one,  as  it  was  partly 
for  his  benefit  that  it  was  bailed  to  him  j  and 
putting  them  where  they  were  at  all  exposed 
to  be  wet,  would  be  considered,  I  suppose,  as 
not  taking  good  care  of  them." 

"And  so  he  would  not  have  to  pay  for  the 
lady's  watch,  in  any  case,"  said  Rollo. 

"  Yes,  he  would,  if  he  did  not  take  ordi- 
nary care  of  it ;  that  is,  if  he  was  grossly 
negligent.  For  instance,  if  he  should  take 
all  the  rest  of  his  watches  home,  and  leave 
that  in  his  shop  upon  the  counter,  where  I 
had  laid  it  down,  and  somebody  should 
come  in  the  night  and  steal  it,  then,  per- 
haps he  would  be  liable." 

By  this  time,  Rollo's  father  began  to  think 
that  his  law  lecture  had  been  long  enough 
for  such  young  students,  and  so  he  said  that 
he  would  not  tell  them  any  more  about  it 
then.  "  But  now,"  said  he,  in  conclusion, 
"  I  want  you  to  remember  what  I  have  said, 
and  practise  according  to  it.  Boys  bail 
things  to  one  another  very  often,  and  a  great 
many  disputes  arise  among  them,  because 


A   LITTLE    LAW.  75 

they  don't  understand  the  law  of  bailment. 
It  applies  to  boys  as  well  as  men.  It  is 
founded  on  principles  of  justice  and  common  - 
sense,  and,  of  course,  what  is  just  and  equita- 
ble among  men,  is  just  and  equitable  among 
boys. 

"  You  must  remember  that  whenever  any 
thing  belonging  to  one  boy  is  intrusted  to 
another  in  any  way,  if  it  is  for  the  benefit 
of  the  bailee,  if  any  accident  happens  to 
it,  he  must  make  it  good ;  unless  it  was  some 
inevitable  accident,  which  could  not  have 
been  prevented  by  the  utmost  care.  If  it  is 
for  the  benefit  of  the  bailor,  that  is,  the  boy 
who  intrusts  it,  then  he  can't  require  the 
other  to  pay  for  it,  unless  he  was  grossly 
negligent.  And  if  it  was  for  the  common 
benefit  of  both,  then  if  the  bailee  takes 
what  may  be  called  good  care  of  it,  he  is 
not  liable  to  pay ;  if  he  does  not  take  good 
care,  he  is." 

Here  ended  the  lecture  on  the  law  of  bail- 
ment. James  soon  after  went  home,  and 
Rollo  in  due  time  went  to  bed.  The  next 
morning,  when  he  got  up  and  began  to  dress 
himself,  he  thought  one  of  the  legs  of  his 
pantaloons   felt  somewhat  heavy.     He   put 


76  A    LITTLE    LAW. 

his  hand  down  to  ascertain  what  was  there, 
and  he  felt  something  at  the  bottom,  between 
the  cloth  and  the  lining.  It  was  Sarah's 
pocket-book.  When  Rollo  put  it  into  his 
pocket,  as  he  thought,  he  in  reality  slipped  it 
inside  of  the  lining,  and  it  worked  itself 
down  to  the  bottom,  as  he  was  playing  about. 
He  pulled  it  out,  and  then,  after  he  had 
dressed  himself,  he  ran  very  joyfully  to  his 
father,  to  show  it  to  him.  His  father  was 
very  glad  that  it  was  found,  and  told  Rollo 
to  carry  it  to  Dorothy.  Dorothy  was  very 
glad,  too,  for  she  was  very  sorry  to  have 
Rollo  lose  his  own  wallet,  or  his  father  lose 
his  money.  So  she  gave  him  back  his 
wallet,  and  he  replaced  it  in  his  desk  where 
it  was  before,  after  giving  his  father  back 
his  money. 


77 


CONFUSION. 


Rollo  explained  his  plan  of  collecting  a 
museum  of  curiosities  to  his  cousins  Lucy 
and  James,  and  to  his  sister  Mary,  who  was 
a  good  deal  older  than  he  was.  He  also 
informed  Henry,  a  playmate  of  his,  who  lived 
not  a  great  way  from  his  father's  house.  All 
the  children  took  a  great  deal  of  interest  in 
the  scheme,  and  promised  to  help  him  collect 
the  curiosities. 

At  length,  after  a  few  days,  Rollo,  to  his 
great  joy,  observed  one  evening  signs  of 
an  approaching  storm.  The  wind  sighed 
through  the  trees,  and  thick,  hazy  clouds 
spread  themselves  over  the  sky. 

"Don't  you  think  it  is  going  to  rain?" 
said  Rollo  to  his  father,  as  he  came  in  to 
tea. 

"I  don't  know,"  said  his  father.  "  Which 
way  is  the  wind?" 

"I'll  go  and  see,"  said  Rollo. 

He  went  out  and  looked  at  the  vane, 
7* 


78  CONFUSION. 

which  Jonas  had  placed  upon  the  top  of  the 
barn. 

When  he  came  in,  he  told  his  father  that 
the  wind  was  east.  Then  his  father  said 
he  thought  it  would  rain,  and  Rollo  clapped 
his  hands  with  delight. 

And  it  did  rain.  The  next  morning,  when 
Rollo  awoke,  he  heard  the  storm  driving 
against  the  window  of  his  chamber.  After 
breakfast,  he  took  an  umbrella,  and  went  out 
into  the  barn,  and  found  Jonas  already  at 
work  upon  the  cabinet.  In  the  course  of  the 
morning  he  finished  it.  He  put  three  good 
shelves  into  it,  which,  together  with  the 
bottom  of  the  box,  made  four  shelves.  He 
also  put  the  two  covers  on,  with  hinges,  so 
as  to  make  doors  of  them ;  and  put  a  little 
hasp  upon  the  doors,  outside,  to  fasten  them 
with.  He  then  put  it  up  in  one  corner  of 
the  play  room,  all  ready  for  the  curiosities. 
Rollo  put  in  his  hornets'  nest,  his  pebble 
stones,  and  his  hemlock-seed,  as  he  called  it ; 
and  then  went  to  the  barn  door,  and  began 
to  be  as  eager  to  have  it  clear  up,  as  he  had 
been  before  to  have  it  rain.  He  wanted  to 
go  out  and  collect  some  more  curiosities. 

After  a  time  it  did  clear  up,  and  Rollo 


CONFUSION.  79 

obtained  his  mother's  leave  to  go  and  ask  all 
the  children  who  were  going  to  have  a  share 
in  the  museum,  to  come  one  afternoon  and 
begin  to  collect  the  curiosities.  They  all 
came  —  Lucy,  James,  and  Henry.  And  when 
Rollo  saw  them  all  collected  in  the  garden 
yard,  with  baskets  in  their  hands  all  ready  to 
go  forth  after  curiosities,  he  capered  about 
full  of  anticipations  of  delight. 

"Now,"  said  Henry,  "let  us  go  down  to 
the  hemlock- tree." 

"No,"  said  Rollo,  "it  will  be  better  to  go 
to  the  brook,  where  I  found  the  pebbles." 

"  But  I  want  to  go  and  see  if  I  can't  find 
another  hemlock-seed,"  said  Henry. 

Rollo  was,  however,  very  unwilling  to  go 
that  way,  and  yet  Henry  insisted  upon  it. 
Lucy  listened  to  the  dispute  with  a  coun- 
tenance expressive  of  distress  and  anxiety. 
First,  she  proposed  to  Rollo  to  yield  to 
Henry,  and  then  to  Henry  to  yield  to  Rollo  ; 
but  in  vain.  Henry  said  that  Rollo  ought  to 
let  him  decide,  because  he  was  the  oldest ; 
and  Rollo  said  that  he  himself  ought  to 
decide,  because  it  was  his  museum.  They 
were  both  wrong.  Neither  ought  to  have 
insisted  upon  having  his  own  way  so  strenu- 


80  CONFUSION. 

ously.  At  length,  after  quite  a  long  and 
unpleasant  altercation,  Lucy  proposed  thai 
they  should  draw  lots  for  it.  The  boys 
consented. 

"Til  tell  you  a  better  plan  than  that," 
said  a  voice  above  them.  They  looked  up, 
and  saw  Mary  sitting  at  the  window  of  the 
chamber.  She  had  been  reading,  but,  on 
hearing  this  dispute,  she  had  closed  her  book, 
and  now  interposed  to  do  what. she  could  to 
aid  in  settling  it. 

When  Rollo  heard  his  sister  Mary's  voice, 
he  felt  a  little  ashamed  of  his  pertinacity. 
Lucy  asked  Mary  what  the  plan  was. 

"  Why,"  said  she,  "  in  all  expeditions 
where  there  are  several  children,  it  is  very 
desirable  to  have  a  regent." 

"  A  regent  ?  "  said  Lucy. 

"  Yes,"  said  Mary,  "  a  commander,  to  take 
the  lead,  and  decide  the  thousand  little  ques- 
tions which  are  likely  to  occur.  Unless 
there  is  somebody  to  decide  them,  there  will 
be  endless  disputes." 

"Well,"  said  Henry,  ".111  be  regent." 

"No,"  said  Mary,  "you  must  choose  one. 
I'll  tell  you  how.  You  must  choose  the 
regent  by  ballot.     Lilac  leaves  make   good 


CONFUSION.  SI 

ballots.  Each  one  of  you  must  consider 
who  you  think  will  be  best  for  regent, — 
that  is,  who  will  have  the  most  discretion 
and  judgment,  to  decide  wisely,  and  at  the 
same  time  be  mild  and  gentle,  and  amiable 
in  manner,  so  as  to  be  a  pleasant  commander. 
Of  course,  no  one  must  vote  for  himself." 

"But  I  don't  understand,"  said  Rollo. 
"What  are  the  lilac  leaves  for  ?  " 

"  For  ballots ;  that  is,  for  you  to  write 
your  votes  upon.  You  can  write  on  the 
under  side  of  a  lilac  leaf  with  the  point  of 
a  pin." 

"  Can  we?"  said  Lucy,  with  a  look  of 
curiosity  and  pleasure. 

"  Yes,"  said  Mary,  "  you  need  not  write 
the  whole  name.  You  can  write  the  first 
letter  —  that  will  be  enough.  R.  stands  for 
Rollo,  L.  for  Lucy,  H.  for  Henry,  J.  for 
James,  and  N.  for  Nathan." 

"  Ho !  "  said  Rollo,  "  Nathan  won't  do  for 
a  regent." 

"  Perhaps  not,"  said  Lucy  ;  "  each  one  of 
you  must  vote  for  the  one  you  think  best. 
Now  get  your  lilac  leaves,  and  I  will  drop 
you  down  some  pins." 

The  children  ran  off  very  eagerly  to  get 


82  CONFUSION. 

the  leaves,  and  then  came  back,  and  Mary 
dropped  down  four  pins.  They  each  took 
one,  and,  with  the  point  of  it,  wrote  a  letter 
upon  the  back  of  the  leaf.  Then  Mary 
asked  Nathan  to  carry  around  his  cap,  and 
Jet  them  all  drop  their  leaves  into  it,  and 
then  bring  them  up  to  her,  and  she  would 
see  who  was  chosen. 

So  Nathan,  highly  pleased  with  his  office, 
collected  the  votes  in  his  cap,  and  brought 
them  up  to  his  sister  Mary.  She  looked 
them  over  as  she  sat  at  the  window,  the 
children  all  looking  up  from  below,  eagerly 
awaiting  the  result.  At  length,  Mary  told 
them  that  there  were  four  leaves  in  Nathan's 
cap,  and  that  three  of  them  had  the  letter  L 
upon  it.  "  So,"  said  she,  "  you  see  you 
have  chosen  Lucy  for  regent." 

"  Yes,  I  voted  for  Lucy,"  said  Rollo. 
M  I  thought  she  would  be  the  best." 

"And  so  did  I,"  said  James  and  Henry. 

Lucy  looked  down,  and  felt  a  little  em- 
barrassed at  finding  herself  raised  so  suddenly 
to  the  dignity  of  regent ;  and  she  asked 
Mary  what  she  was  to  do. 

"O,  walk  along  with  them  just  as  you 
would  if  you  had  not  been  chosen ;  only  you 


CONFUSION.  83 

will  decide  all  the  questions  that  come  up, 
such  as  where  you  shall  go,  and  how  long 
you  shall  stay  in  the  different  places.  The 
others  may  give  you  their  opinions,  if  you 
ask  them ;  but  they  must  let  you  decide, 
and  they  must  all  submit  to  your  decisions." 

"  Well,  come,"  said  Lucy ;  "  we'll  go 
down  the  lane  first."  So  she  took  hold  of 
Thanny's  hand,  and  walked  along,  the  other 
children  following.  They  passed  through 
the  great  gate,  and  soon  disappeared  from 
Mary's  view. 

They  were  gone  two  or  three  hours.  At 
length,  when  the  sun  had  nearly  gone  down, 
Mary  heard  voices  in  the  front  of  the  house. 
She  left  her  back  window,  and  went  around 
to  a  front  window  to  see.  She  found  them 
returning,  and  all  talking  together  with  the 
greatest  volubility.  They  had  their  baskets 
full  of  various  commodities,  and  large  bou- 
quets of  flowers  and  plants  in  their  hands. 
They  did  not  see  Mary  at  the  window,  and  as 
they  all  seemed  to  be  good-natured  and  satis- 
fied with  their  afternoon's  work,  Mary  did 
not  speak  to  them ;  and  so  they  passed  along 
into  the  yard  undisturbed.  They  proceeded 
immediately  to  the  cabinet  in  the  play  room, 


84  CONFUSION. 

and  then  began  to  take  out  their  treasures 
from  their  baskets,  and  pockets,  and  handker- 
chiefs, and  to  spread  them  out  upon  the  floor, 
and  upon  the  bench.  In  a  short  time,  the 
floor  was  covered  with  specimens  of  plants 
and  minerals,  with  shells,  and  pebbles,  and 
little  papers  of  sand,  and  nuts,  and  birds'  nests 
which  they  had  found  deserted,  and  all  sorts 
of  wonders.  The  room  was  filled  with  the 
sound  of  their  voices  ;  questions,  calls  to  one 
another,  expressions  of  delight,  exclamations 
of  surprise,  or  of  disappointment  or  pleasure. 
It  was  all,  —  "  James,  you  are  treading  on  my 
flowers!  "  "O  Lucy,  Lucy,  see  my  toadstool ! " 
"  O,  now  my  prettiest  shell  is  broken !  " 
"  Move  away  a  little,  Rollo  —  I  have  not  got 
room  for  all  my  pebbles"  —  "  Where's  my 
silk  worm  ?  now  where's  my  silk  worm  ?  " 
H  O  Henry,  give  me  some  of  your  birch 
bark,  do," — and  a  hundred  other  similar 
ejaculations,  all  uttered  together. 

They  soon  began,  one  and  another,  to  put 
their  curiosities  into  the  cabinet,  —  and  then 
it  was,  as  the  old  phrase  is,  confusion  worse 
confounded.  Lucy  had  some  discretion  and 
forbearance,  and  kept  a  little  back,  looking, 
however,  uneasy  and  distressed,  and  attempt- 


CONFUSION.  85 

ing  in  vain  to  get  an  opportunity  to  put 
some  of  her  things  in.  The  boys  crowded 
around  the  cabinet,  each  attempting  to  put 
his  own  curiosities  into  the  most  conspicuous 
places,  and  arranging  thern  over  and  over 
again,  according  as  each  one's  whims  or 
fancies  varied. 

"  O  dear  me,"  said  Rollo,  "  I  wish  you 
would  not  keep  moving  these  pebbles  away, 
Henry." 

"  Why,  you  put  them  too  far  this  way," 
said  Henry  j  "  I  want  my  shells  to  go  here." 

"  No,"  replied  Rollo,  "  put  your  shells 
down  on  the  next  shelf.  James !  James ! 
take  care  ;  don't  touch  that  birds'  nest." 

"  Yes,  I  Want  room  for  my  silver  stone," 
said  James.  He  had  found  a  shining  stone, 
which  he  called  a  silver  stone.  And  thus 
they  disputed,  and  talked  loudly  and  vocife- 
rously, and  contradicted,  interrupted,  pushed, 
and  crowded  each  other.  Still,  they  were  all 
good  natured  j  that  is,  they  were  not  angry  j 
the  difficulty  only  arose  from  their  eagerness 
and  their  numbers,  —  and  their  disorganiza- 
tion. 

"  O  dear  me,"  said  Rollo,  at  length,  "  I 
8 


86  CONFUSION. 

wish  we  had  a  regent  again ;  we  got  along 
very  well,  while  Lucy  was  a  regent.  Let 
me  be  regent  now.  Come,  Henry  and  James, 
let  me  be  regent,  and  I  will  direct,  and  then 
we  shall  have  order  again." 

"  Well,"  said  James. 

"No,"  said  Henry,  "you  have  not  been 
elected.  You  can't  be  regent,  unless  you 
are  chosen  regularly." 

Lucy  said  nothing,  but  stood  behind  the 
others  in  despair. 

"  Well,  then,  let  Lucy  be  regent ;  she  was 
chosen." 

"But  I  was  only  chosen  regent  for  the 
walk,"  said  Lucy. 

"O  never  mind,"  said  Rollo,  "let  her  be 
regent  now." 

But  Henry  was  not  disposed  to  submit  to 
any  doubtful  authority.  He  kept  at  work 
putting  things  in,  in  the  way  that  pleased 
him  most,  without  any  regard  to  RoHo's 
proposal  for  prolonging  Lucy's  authority. 
As  Henry  did  not  acquiesce  in  this  proposed 
measure,  Rollo  and  James  seemed  to  think 
it  was  useless  for  them  to  do  so,  and  so  they 
went  much  as  they  had  begun,  until  they 


CONFUSION.  87 

had  pretty  well  filled  up  Jonas's  cabinet  with 
a  perfect  medley  of  specimens,  the  worthy 
and  the  worthless  all  together.  They  were 
at  length  interrupted  by  the  sound  of  the 
bell,  calling  Rollo  in  to  tea;  Henry  then 
went  home,  and  James,  Lucy,  and  Rollo 
went  into  the  house. 


88 


ORGANIZATION. 


James  and  Lucy  staid  and  took  tea  with 
Rollo  that  evening  ;  and,  during  tea  time, 
Rollo's  father  and  mother  were  talking,  and 
the  boys  were  all  still.  At  last,  just  before 
they  had  finished  their  supper,  Rollo's  father 
asked  them  how  they  had  got  along  collect- 
ing curiosities. 

"  O,  we  had  a  very  good  time,"  said  Rollo, 
"  till  we  came  to  put  our  curiosities  away  ; 
and  then  we  should  have  had  a  good  time 
if  the  boys  had  not  pushed  so,  and  made 
such  a  noise." 

"  What  made  them  do  so  ? "  asked  his 
mother. 

"  I  don't  know,  unless  it  was  because  we 
did  not  have  any  regent." 

"  Any  what  ?  "  said  his  father. 

"Any  regent,"  said  Rollo.  "We  had 
Lucy  for  a  regent  while  we  were  walking, 
and  then  we  got  along  very  well ;  but  she 


ORGANIZATION.  89 

would  not  be  regent  any  longer,  when  we 
got  home." 

Rollo's  father  and  mother  scarcely  knew 
what  to  make  of  this ;  for  they  had  never 
heard  before  of  a  regent  in  children's  plays. 
But  as  they  looked  towards  Mary,  and 
observed  that  she  was  smiling,  they  at  once 
understood  that  it  was  one  of  her  plans. 
Rollo's  father  said  he  though  it  was  on 
excellent  idea. 

"  But  why  did  not  you  have  a  regent 
when  you  were  putting  your  things  away, 
just  as  you  had  before  ?  "  he  asked. 

"  Why,  Lucy  said  she  was  only  chosen 
for  the  walk." 

"  And  so  she  would  not  serve  any  longer  ?  " 

"No,  sir." 

"  That  was  right,  Lucy.  Never  attempt 
to  command  without  a  commission. 

"But,  Rollo,"  added  his  father,  "I  should 
think  it  would  be  best  for  you  to  have  some 
sort  of  organization,  if  you  are  going  to 
attempt  to  do  any  thing  in  company.  Men 
never  think  that  they  can  accomplish  any 
thing  in  company,  without  organization  :  and 
I  should  certainly  think  that  children  would 
not  be  able  to." 

d*  8* 


90  ORGANIZATION. 

"Organization?"  said  Rollo ;  "what  is 
that  ? » 

"  Why,  some  plan  for  investing  some  per- 
sons with  authority.  There  must  always 
be  authority  to  decide  little  questions  with- 
out debate,  and  for  getting  the  opinions  of 
all,  on  great  questions,  regularly. 

"  If  a  number  of  men,"  he  continued, 
"  were  going  to  form  a  cabinet  of  curiosities, 
they  would  form  a  society.  They  would 
choose  one  to  be  president,  and  one  to  be 
secretary,  and  one  to  be  cabinet  keeper." 

"  What  does  the  president  do  ?  "  asked 
Lucy. 

"  The  president  decides  who  shall  speak, 
when  several  want  to  speak  at  the  same  time  ; 
and  so  he  prevents  all  confusion.  Nobody 
must  speak  without  his  leave." 

"Do  they  have  to  ask  him  ? "  said  Rollo. 

"  Yes,  in  fact,  they  ask  him,  though  not 
formally  in  words.  They  ask  him  by  rising. 
In  large  meetings  among  men,  whoever 
wants  to  speak,  stands  up,  and  then  the 
president  calls  their  name,  and  that  is  giving 
him  permission  to  speak.  If  more  than  one 
stand  up  at  a  time,  then  he  calls  the  name 


ORGANIZATION.  91 

of  one  of  them,  and  he  has  leave  to  speak, 
and  the  other  must  sit  down." 

"  Which  one  d$es  he  call  ?  "  asked  Rollo. 

"The  one  whom  he  happens  to  notice 
first.  He  must  be  careful  not  to  call  his 
friends  more  than  he  does  other  persons. 
He  must  be  impartial.  Then,  besides,  the 
president  puts  the  question." 

"  Puts  the  question  ?  "  asked  Rollo  ;  "  what 
is  putting  the  question  ?  " 

"  Why,  after  all  has  been  said  about  the 
plan  that  they  want  to  say,  the  president 
asks  all  that  are  in  favor  of  it,  to  hold  up 
their  hands ;  and  he  counts  them.  Then  he 
asks  all  that  are  against  it  to  hold  up  their 
hands.  He  counts  these  too.  And  it  is 
decided  according  to  the  number  of  votes." 

u  Is  that  the  way  they  do  ?  "said  Rollo. 

"Yes,"  replied  his  father,  "that  is  the 
way  that  men  do  ;  but  boys  all  talk  together, 
and  dispute.  If  some  want  to  play  ball,  and 
some  want  to  play  horses,  they  all  talk 
together,  and  dispute ;  it  is  all,  —  'I  say  we 
will,'  and  '  I  say  we  wont,'  —  and  those  that 
make  the  most  noise  get  the  victory." 

"  The  men's  way  is  the  best,"  said  Rollo, 


92  ORGANIZATION. 

"  I  think  so  myself,"  replied  his  father. 

"  And  what  does  the  secretary  do  ?  "  asked 
Mary. 

"The  secretary  keeps  the  record.  He 
writes  an  account  of  every  meeting." 

"  Does  he  write  all  that  every  body  says  ?  " 
asked  Rollo. 

"  No,"  said  his  father,  "only  the  decisions." 

"  Well,"  said  Rollo,  with  a  tone  of  satis- 
faction, "  and  the  cabinet  keeper  keeps  the 
cabinet,  I  suppose." 

"  Yes,"  said  his  father,  "and  so  all  disput- 
ings  about  where  the  things  are  to  be  placed 
in  the  cabinet,  are  avoided;  for  he  decides 
the  whole.  He  must  be  a  person  of  judg- 
ment and  skill." 

"Jonas  would  be  a  good  cabinet  keeper 
for  us,"  said  Rollo. 

"  I  think  you  had  better  form  a  regular 
society,  Rollo,"  said  Mary. 

"  Well,"  said  Rollo,  "will  you  belong  to 
it'" 

"  Yes,"  said  Mary. 

"  And  we  can  choose  our  officers  by  lilac 
ballots,"  said  James. 

"  We'll  have  the  first  meeting  to-morrow 


ORGANIZATION.  93 

afternoon,"  said  Rollo.  "  I  will  go  in  the 
morning,  and  ask  Henry  to  come,  — if  mother 
will  let  me." 

His  mother  did  let  him,  and  the  next 
afternoon  the  children  all  collected  in  the 
yard,  intending  to  form  their  society,  and 
proceed  regularly.  Mary  promised  to  meet 
with  them,  and  help  them  make  their  arrange- 
ments. They  were  to  meet  in  the  play 
room. 

Before  the  time  of  the  meeting,  Mary  went 
in,  and,  with  Rollo's  help,  made  some  seats 
of  boards,  not  far  from  the  cabinet,  so  that 
all  the  members  of  the  society  might  sit 
down.  The  children  played  about  in  the 
yard,  some  gathering  lilac  leaves  for  ballots, 
and  some  talking  about  the  curiosities  they 
meant  to  collect,  until,  at  length,  Mary  came 
down  and  told  them  it  was  time  to  go  and 
have  their  meeting.  She  had  a  great  many 
little  papers  in  one  hand,  and  some  pencils 
in  the  other.  James  asked  ner  what  she 
was  going  to  do  with  those  papers.  She 
said  they  were  for  ballots. 

"  O,  we  have  been  getting  lilac  leaves  for 
ballots,"  said  Lucy. 


94  ORGANIZATION. 

"Papers  are  better,"  said  Mary,  "when 
there  is  a  good  deal  of  balloting  to  be 
done." 

Then  the  children  threw  down  the  lilac 
leaves  they  had  gathered,  and  followed  Mary 
into  the  play  room.  They  all  came  around 
the  cabinet,  and  began  to  open  it  and  talk 
about  the  curiosities.  But  Mary  told  them 
that,  if  they  were  going  to  have  a  society, 
they  must  not  touch  the  cabinet  until  they 
had  appointed  a  cabinet  keeper  —  they 
ought  all  to  go  and  sit  down. 

So  they  went  and  sat  down. 

"And  now  you  must  not  talk  at  all,  until 
the  president  is  chosen,"  said  Mary.  "  You 
must  all  write  upon  these  papers  the  name 
of  the  person  you  think  best  for  president, 
and  then  bring  them  to  me.  You  see,"  she 
continued,  as  she  distributed  the  papers 
around,  to  the  other  children,  "that  I  am 
acting  as  president  just  now,  until  we  get 
one  chosen.  That  is  the  way  men  do.  I 
asked  father  about  it.  He  said  that  the 
oldest  person,  or  one  of  the  oldest,  generally 
took  charge  of  the  proceedings,  until  a  chair- 
man was  chosen." 

"  A  chairman?  "  said  Rollo. 


ORGANIZATION.  97 

"  Yes,  or  president ;  sometimes  they  call 
him  a  chairman." 

So  the  children  took  their  papers,  and 
began  to  prepare  for  writing  their  ballots. 

"  What  shall  we  put  our  papers  on,  cousin 
Mary,  to  write  ?  "  said  Lucy. 

"  O,  you  must  write  on  the  seat  by  the 
side  of  you,  —  or  on  this  book;  here  is  a 
book  for  one." 

"  I  can  write  on  my  cap,"  said  James ; 
and  he  placed  his  cap  upon  his  knees,  and 
began  to  use  that  for  a  desk.  One  of  the 
children  took  the  book,  and  others  leaned 
over  to  one  side,  and  put  their  papers  upon 
the  seat,  and  prepared  to  write  there.  Some 
began  to  write  very  soon.  Others  looked 
around  mysteriously,  considering  which  one 
of  the  company  would  make  the  best  presi- 
dent. Henry  stood  up  by  the  great  work 
bench,  and  made  that  his  writing-desk  ; 
keeping  a  sharp  look-out  all  the  time  lest 
Rollo  should  see  what  he  should  write. 
And  thus  the  children  prepared  their  votes 
for  president. 

When  the  votes  were  all  ready,  the 
children  brought  them  all  together  to  Mary, 
e  9 


98  ORGANIZATION. 

who  put  them  on  the  corner  of  the  great 
bench  near  which  she  was  standing ;  and 
the  children  all  came  up  around  them,  to 
see  who  was  chosen. 

But  Mary  gently  put  her  hand  over  the 
votes,  and  told  them  that  that  was  not  the 
way  to  count  votes.  "  You  must  all  go  and 
sit  down  again,"  she  said,  "and  appoint  some 
one  to  count  them ;  and  then  he  or  she  must 
come  alone,  and  look  them  over  and  tell  you 
who  is  chosen." 

"Well,"  said  the  children;  and  so  they 
went  back  to  their  seats. 

"I  propose  that  Henry  count  them,"  said 
Mary. 

"Well,"  said  the  children. 

"  No,  let  James,"  said  Rollo. 

"  That  is  not  right,  Rollo,"  said  Mary, 
"because  it  is  of  very  little  consequence 
who  counts  the  votes,  and  in  societies  the 
best  way  is  to  let  things  that  are  of  little 
consequence  go  according  to  the  first  pro- 
posal.    That  saves  time." 

So  Henry  came  up,  and  began  to  look  over 
the  votes. 

"  They  are  all  for  Mary  but  one,  and  that 
is  for  Lucy,"  said  Henry. 


ORGANIZATION.  99 

"  Then  cousin  Mary  is  president,"  said 
James,  clapping  his  hands. 

"Yes,"  said  Mary,  "it  seems  you  have 
chosen  me  president ;  and  I  will  be  president 
for  a  time,  until  I  think  that  some  of  the 
rest  of  you  have  learned  how  to  preside,  and 
then  I  shall  resign,  and  leave  you  to  manage 
your  society  yourselves.  Now  you  must 
write  the  votes  for  secretary."  So  Mary  took 
her  seat  in  the  chair  which  she  had  provided 
for  the  president,  and  which,  until  this  time, 
had  been  empty. 

So  the  children  began  to  write  votes  again, 
and  as  fast  as  they  had  written  them  they 
brought  them  to  Mary,  and  dropped  them  in 
her  lap.  As  soon  as  each  one  had  put  in  his 
vote,  he  went  back  and  took  his  seat.  When 
the  votes  were  all  in,  Mary  looked  them 
over,  and  said, 

"  There  are  two  votes  for  Lucy,  and  one 
for  Rollo,  and  one  for  Henry." 

"  Then  Lucy  is  chosen  secretary,"  said 
James. 

"  No,"  said  Mary,  "  because  she  has  only 
half.  The  person  that  is  chosen  must  have 
more  than  half  of  all  the  votes.  Lucy  has 
two,  a,nd  there  are  two  scattering." 


100  ORGANIZATION. 

"Scattering!"  said  Rollo,  looking  some- 
what puzzled. 

"  Yes ;  that  is,  for  other  persons." 

"  What  shall  we  do,  then?  "  said  Rollo. 

"  Why,  you  must  vote  again." 

So  the  children  wrote  votes  again,  and 
brought  them  in  to  the  president.  She 
smiled  as  she  looked  them  over.  Then  she 
said, 

"  Now  there  is  a  tie." 

"  A  tie,  Mary  !  "  said  Rollo  ;  "  what  is 
a  tie  ? " 

"  Why,  there  are  two  votes  for  Rollo,  and 
two  for  Lucy  ;  that  makes  it  exactly  bal- 
anced, and  they  call  that  a  tie." 

"  And  now  what  shall  we  do  with  the 
tie  ?  "  said  Rollo. 

"  Why,  you  must  vote  again." 

Just  as  the  children  were  preparing  to 
vote  again,  they  heard  a  noise  of  footsteps  at 
the  door,  and,  looking  up,  they  saw  Nathan 
coming  in.  He  had  his  little  straw  hat  upon 
his  head,  and  his  whip  in  his  hand.  He 
was  playing  market-man,  and  wanted  to 
know  if  they  wished  to  buy  any  potatoes. 

The   children  all   laughed.      Mary   said 


ORGANIZATION.  101 

"No,  Thanny,  this  is  a  society  ;  come,  don't 
you  want  to  belong  to  the  society  ?  " 

"  Yes,"  said  Nathan  ;  and  down  went  his 
whip  upon  the  floor,  and  he  came  trotting 
along  towards  Mary.  Mary  told  him  to  sit 
down  upon  the  seat  next  to  Rollo. 

Nathan  took  his  seat,  and  began  to  look 
around  with  an  air  of  great  curiosity,  won- 
dering what  they  were  going  to  do  j  and  by 
this  time  the  votes  were  ready.  Mary  looked 
them  over  and  counted  them,  and  then  said 
that  they  were  just  as  they  were  before,  two 
for  Rollo,  and  two  for  Lucy. 

"  What  shall  we  do  now  ?  "  said  Rollo. 

"  We  must  vote  again,"  said  James. 

"  That  won't  do  any  good,"  said  Henry. 

"  There's  Thanny,"  said  Lucy ;  "  let  him 
vote." 

"  Well,"  said  Mary,  "  and  that  will  break 
the  tie." 

"  O,  Thanny  can't  vote,"  said  Rollo  ;  "  he 
can't  write  a  word." 

"  He    can    vote   without   writing,"    said 
Mary.     "  Thanny,  come  here.     Which   do 
you   think   will   make   the   best   secretary, 
Rollo,  or  Lucy  ?  " 
9* 


102  ORGANIZATION. 

"  Why  —  Lucy,"  said  Thanny,  after  some 
hesitation. 

"Lucy,  he  says;  so  Lucy  is  chosen,"  said 
Mary.  "  Now,  Lucy,  you  must  be  secretary ; 
but  I  forgot  to  bring  out  some  paper." 

Rollo  looked  a  little  disappointed.  He 
had  hoped  to  have  been  secretary  himself. 
So  when  Nathan  came  back  to  his  seat,  he 
began  to  punch  him  a  little,  good-naturedly, 
with  his  thumb,  saying,  "  Me  —  why  didn't 
you  say  me,  Thanny  ?  Hey,  Thanny !  Why 
did  not  you  say  we?" 

Just  then,  Mary  asked  Rollo  to  go  into  the 
house  and  get  a  sheet  of  paper  for  the  secre- 
tary ;  and  when  he  came  back,  Lucy  asked 
her  what  she  should  write.  Mary  gave  her 
the  necessary  directions,  and  then  Lucy  went 
to  the  bench,  and  standing  there,  near  the 
president's  chair,  she  went  on  writing  the 
record,  while  the  rest  of  the  society  pro- 
ceeded with  their  business.  The  next  thing 
was  to  choose  a  cabinet  keeper. 

"  You  may  prepare  your  votes  for  cabinet 
keeper." 

"  I  think  Jonas  would  be  the  best  cabinet 
keeper,"  said  Henry ;  "  he  made  the  cabinet." 


ORGANIZATION.  103 

"  O,  Jonas  does  not  belong  to  the  society," 
said  Rollo. 

"  But  we  can  let  him  in,"  said  Lucy- 

"  No,  he  can't  belong  to  the  society,"  said 
Rollo ;  "he  has  too  much  work  to  do." 

The  fact  was,  that  Rollo  wanted  to  be 
cabinet  keeper  himself,  and  so  he  was  op- 
posed to  any  arrangement  which  would  be 
likely  to  result  in  the  election  of  Jonas.  But 
Mary  said  that  it  was  not  necessary  that  any 
one  should  be  a  member  of  the  society,  in 
order  to  be  chosen  cabinet  keeper.  She  said 
he  might  be  chosen,  if  the  children  thought 
best,  even  if  he  was  not  a  member.  "  But 
then,"  said  she,  "  you  must  consider  all  the 
circumstances,  and  vote  for  the  one  who, 
you  honestly  think,  will  take  the  best  care 
of  the  curiosities,  and  arrange  them  best." 

The  children  then  wrote  their  ballots,  and 
brought  them  to  Mary.  Mary  asked  Lucy 
to  count  them.  Lucy  said  she  had  not 
written  her  vote  herself  yet. 

"  Well,  write  it  quick  then,"  said  Mary. 

"  But  I  can't  think,"  said  Lucy,  "  whether 
I  had  better  vote  for  Jonas  or  Rollo." 

"Well,"  said  Mary,   "you  have  only  to 


104  ORGANIZATION. 

consider  whether  it  will  be  best  for  the 
museum  to  be  in  Jonas's  hands,  or  in 
Rollo's." 

"But  I  have  been  thinking,"  said  Lucy, 
"  that  it  is  all  Rollo's  plan,  and  his  museum  ; 
and  that  he  ought  to  be  cabinet  keeper,  if  he 
wants  to  be." 

"  There  is  something  in  that,"  said  Mary  ; 
"  though  generally,  in  choosing  officers,  we 
ought  to  act  for  the  good  of  the  society,  not 
for  the  good  of  the  officers." 

"  But  it  is  my  cabinet,"  said  Rollo ;  "  Jonas 
made  it  for  me." 

"  That  may  be,"  said  Mary ;  "  that  is,  it 
may  have  been  yours  at  the  beginning ;  but 
when  you  invite  us  all  to  come  and  form  a 
society,  you  give  up  your  claim  to  it,  and 
it  comes  to  belong  to  the  society  j  at  any 
-ate,  the  right  to  manage  it  belongs  to  the 
society,  and  we  must  do  what  will  be  best 
for  the  whole." 

Rollo  did  not  look  very  much  pleased  at 
these  remarks  of  his  sisters ;  but  Lucy  imme- 
diately wrote  her  vote,  and  put  it  with  the 
others.  She  then  examined  and  counted 
them,  and  immediately  afterwards,  she  said 


ORGANIZATION.  105 

there  were  three  votes  for  Jonas,  and  one  for 
Rollo.  So  Jonas  was  chosen.  The  children 
did  not  know  who  wrote  the  vote  which 
was  given  for  Rollo ;  but  the  fact  was,  he 
wrote  it  himself.  He  wanted  to  be  cabinet 
keeper  very  much  indeed. 


106 


CAUGHT,— AND   GONE   AGAIN. 

Rollo  was  sadly  disappointed  at  not  be- 
ing chosen  cabinet  keeper.  Older  and  wiser 
persons  than  he  have  often  been  greatly 
vexed  from  similar  causes.  When  the 
society  meeting  was  ended,  Mary  told  Lucy 
that  she  must  tell  Jonas  that  they  had  chosen 
him  cabinet  keeper,  for  she  was  secretary, 
and  it  was  the  secretary's  duty  to  do  that. 
Mary  then  went  into  the  house.  The  chil- 
dren gathered  around  the  cabinet,  and  began 
to  look  at  the  things  which  had  been  put  in 
the  day  before.  Rollo  undertook  to  arrange 
one  of  the  shelves  differently  from  what  it 
had  been;  but  Henry  told  him  he  must 
not  touch  the  things,  for  Jonas  was  cabinet 
keeper,  and  nobody  but  the  cabinet  keeper 
had  any  right  to  touch  the  things. 

"  O,  I  am  only  going  to  change  them  a 
little,"  said  Rollo. 

"  But  you  have  no  right  to  touch  them  at 
all,"  said  Henry,  pushing  Rollo  back  a  little. 


CAUGHT, AND  GONE  AGAIN.     107 

"Yes,  I  have,"  said  Rollo,  standing  stiffly, 
and  resisting  Henry's  push.  "  It's  my  cabi- 
net, and  I  have  a  right  to  do  what  I  please 
with  it." 

"No,  it  is  not  your  cabinet,"  said  Henry; 
"  it  belongs  to  the  society." 

"  No,  it  doesn't,"  said  Rollo. 

"  It  does,"  said  Henry. 

Rollo  was  wrong — and,  in  fact,  Henry 
was  wrong.  In  disputes,  it  almost  always 
happens  that  both  boys  are  wrong.  Lucy 
stood  by,  looking  distressed.  She  was  very 
sorry  to  have  any  disputing  about  the  cabinet. 

"  O,  never  mind,  Henry,"  said  she  j  "  let 
him  move  them.  Jonas  will  put  them  all 
right  afterwards." 

"No,"  said  Rollo,  "I  am  going  to  keep 
the  cabinet  myself." 

This  was  not  at  all  like  Rollo,  to  be  so 
unreasonable  and  angry.  But  Henry's  rough- 
ness had  irritated  and  vexed  him,  and  that, 
in  connection  with  his  own  determination  to 
keep  the  charge  of  his  cabinet,  had  got  him 
into  a  very  wrong  state  of  mind. 

Lucy  did  not  know  what  to  do.  She 
walked  slowly  along  to  the  door,  and  after 


108     CAUGHT, AND  GONE  AGAIN. 

standing  there  a  moment,  while  Rollo  was 
at  work  upon  the  cabinet,  she  said, 

"  O,  here  comes  Jonas,  now." 

James  and  Henry  ran  to  the  door,  and,  as 
they  saw  Jonas  walking  up  the  lane,  they 
ran  towards  him,  followed  by  Lucy,  and  they 
all  began  eagerly  to  tell  him  about  the 
society,  and  about  his  having  been  chosen 
cabinet  keeper.  Lucy  came  up  to  them 
before  they  had  finished  their  account ;  and 
as  they  had  all  turned  round  when  they  met 
Jonas,  they  came  walking  along  together 
towards  the  house.  James  and  Henry  talked 
very  fast  and  eagerly.  They  told  Jonas 
about  the  society,  and  about  their  having 
chosen  Mary  president,  and  Lucy  secretary, 
and  him  cabinet  keeper.  When  they  had 
finished  their  account,  Lucy  added,  in  a 
desponding  tone, 

"  Only  Rollo  says  he  means  to  be  cabinet 
keeper." 

"  Does  he  ? "  said  Jonas. 

"Yes,"  replied  Henry.  "He  says  you 
made  the  cabinet  for  him,  and  he  will 
have  it." 

"  O,  well,"  said  Jonas,  "  let  him  be  cab- 


CAUGHT, AND  GONE  AGAIN.     109 

inet  keeper;  he  will  make  a  very  good 
cabinet  keeper." 

"  No,"  said  James,  "  we  want  you  to  be 
cabinet  keeper.     We  chose  you." 

They  saw  Rollo  at  the  door  of  the  barn^ 
looking  at  them,  but  not  very  good  naturedly. 
When  they  came  up,  Lucy  said, 

"Come,  Rollo,  let  Jonas  be  cabinet  keeper  j 
that's  a  good  boy." 

"  No,"  said  Rollo,  "it's  my  cabinet,  and  I 
mean  to  keep  it  myself." 

"  Then  we  won't  help  you  get  the  curi- 
osities," said  Henry. 

"  I  don't  care,"  said  Rollo. 

"  And  we  won't  have  any  society,"  added 
James,  —  thinking  that  that  threat  would 
compel  Rollo  to  give  up. 

But  Rollo  only  said, 

"  I  don't  care ;  I  don't  want  any  society. 
I  can  make  a  museum  myself." 

There  is  no  doubt,  but  that  many  of  the 
readers  of  this  book  will  wonder  that  Rollo 
should  have  acted  in  this  manner.  And  yet 
they  themselves  act  in  just  such  a  way  when 
they  allow  themselves  to  get  out  of  temper. 
It  is  very  dangerous  to  allow  ourselves  to 
become  vexed  and  angry.  We  then  do  and 
10 


110  CAUGHT, AND  GONE   AGAIN. 

say  the  most  unreasonable  things,  without 
being  aware,  ourselves,  of  their  unreasonable- 
ness and  folly.  Rollo  himself  did  not  know 
how  his  conduct  appeared  to  the  other  chil- 
dren, and  how  it  sunk  him  in  their  good 
opinion. 

Rollo  would  have  had  a  miserable  time  in 
attempting  to  make  a  collection  of  curiosities 
alone.  He  would  very  soon  have  got  tired 
of  it,  and  have  abandoned  the  plan  alto- 
gether. It  happened,  however,  that  some 
circumstances  occurred  to  prevent  the  con- 
sequences that  his  ill-humor  and  obstinacy 
came  so  near  occasioning. 

Henry  and  James,  rinding  that  Rollo 
would  not  give  up  the  cabinet  to  Jonas's 
care,  considered  the  plan  of  the  society 
abandoned,  and  went  to  play  in  the  yard. 
Lucy  went  into  the  house  to  find  her  cousin 
Mary.  Rollo  remained  at  the  cabinet  for 
some  time,  but  he  found  it  very  dull  amuse- 
ment to  work  there  alone  ;  besides,  he  heard 
the  other  boys'  voices  out  in  the  yard,  and 
before  long  he  began  to  feel  a  strong  desire 
to  go  and  see  what  they  were  doing.  He 
accordingly  went  to  the  door  of  the  barn. 
He  saw  that  Henry  and  James  had  got  a  log 


CAUGHT, AND  GONE  AGAIN.     Ill 

of  wood  out,  and  had  placed  a  board  across 
it,  for  a  see-saw.  Rollo  slowly  walked  along 
towards  them. 

Henry  saw  him  gradually  approaching, 
and  so  he  whispered,  or  rather  spoke  in  a  low 
tone  to  James,  saying, 

"Here  comes  Rollo,  James;  don't  let's  let 
him  get  on  our  see-saw." 

But  James  felt  in  more  of  a  forgiving 
mood  than  Henry.  He  did  not  like  quarrel- 
ling, and  he  knew  very  well  that  peace- 
makers must  be  prepared  to  yield  and  forbear, 
even  if  they  had  not  been  themselves  in  the 
wrong.     So  he  said, 

11  O,  yes,  Henry,  let  him  have  a  ride.  He 
may  get  on  my  end. 

"  Rollo,"  he  added,  calling  to  Rollo,  as  he 
came  up,  "  do  you  want  to  see-saw  ?  You 
may  have  my  end." 

Rollo  did  not  quite  expect  this  gentle  treat- 
ment, and  it  made  him  feel  a  little  ashamed. 
He,  however,  took  James's  place,  but  he 
did  not  feel  quite  easy  there.  He  knew  it 
was  a  place  that  he  did  not  deserve.  Pretty 
soon  he  proposed  that  they  should  all  go  after 
raspberries  down  the  lane. 


«K 


112     CAUGHT, AND  GONE  AGAIN. 

"  Well,"  said  Henry,  "and  I'll  go  and  get 
my  dipper." 

"  Your  dipper  ?  "  said  Rollo. 

"Yes,"  said  Henry,  "  I  brought  a  dipper." 

Henry  then  went  to  a  wood  pile  which 
was  lying  in  the  yard,  and,  looking  behind 
it,  among  the  logs,  he  drew  out  a  small  tin 
dipper,  and  showed  it  to  Rollo. 

"  O,  I  wish  I  had  a  dipper  to  carry ! "  said 
Rollo.     "  It  is  better  than  a  basket." 

Rollo  went  into  the  house,  and  presently 
returned  bringing  two  small  baskets. 

"  One  for  me  ? "  said  James,  interrogatively, 
holding  out  his  hand. 

"  Yes,"  said  Rollo. 

"  Give  me  the  other,"  said  Henry,  "  and 
you  shall  have  my  dipper." 

"  Well,"  said  Rollo. 

"  /  should  rather  have  a  basket,"  said 
James. 

"No,"  said  Rollo,  "I  think  a  dipper  is 
better.  I  can  get  some  drink  with  it,  if  we 
come  to  any  brook." 

"  But  you  must  give  me  some  drink  out 
of  the  dipper,  if  I  want  any,"  said  Henry  — 

"  Well,"  said  Rollo,  "I  will." 


CAUGHT, AND  GONE  AGAIN.     113 

"  Though  I  can  drink  without  a  dipper," 
said  Henry. 

"  How  ?  "  said  Rollo. 

"  O,  I  can  get  a  piece  of  elder,  and  punch 
out  the  pith,  and  that  will  make  a  hollow 
reed ;  and  I  can  draw  up  the  water  through 
that  into  my  mouth." 

By  this  time,  Rollo  and  Henry  had  ex- 
changed the  basket  and  the  dipper,  and  they 
were  all  walking  along  together.  Rollo  told 
the  boys  of  several  other  reasons  why  he 
would  rather  have  the  dipper  on  such  an 
expedition ;  but  Henry  preferred  the  basket, 
and  so  all  were  satisfied. 

They  went  on  down  the  lane.  The 
berries  were  very  thick.  The  boys  ate  a 
great  many,  and  they  filled  their  baskets,  and 
the  dipper  besides.  When  they  reached  the 
bottom  of  the  lane,  Rollo  proposed  that  they 
should  go  on,  through  the  woods,  to  the 
brook.  They  liked  the  plan.  They  accord- 
ingly hid  their  baskets  under  the  fence, 
heaping  full  of  raspberries.  Rollo  said  that 
he  should  take  his  dipper  with  him,  so  as  to 
get  a  drink  at  the  brook. 

"  But  you  can't  use  it  to  get  a  drink,"  said 
Henry  ;  "  it  is  full  of  raspberries." 
e*         10* 


114     CAUGHT, AND  GONE  AGAIN. 

Rollo  had  not  thought  of  this  difficulty. 
He  walked  slowly  along,  with  the  other 
boys,  a  few  minutes,  looking  somewhat  fool- 
ish ;  but  in  a  moment  he  said  he  meant  to 
eat  his  raspberries  up,  and  then  his  dipper 
would  be  empty  when  he  should  get  to  the 
brook. 

So  he  began  to  eat  them.  The  other 
boys  wanted  some  of  them,  and  he  gave 
them  some,  on  condition  that  they  should 
help  him  fill  up  his  dipper  again,  when  they 
returned  up  the  lane  on  their  way  home. 
They  assented  to  this  condition,  and  so  the 
boys  walked  along,  eating  the  raspberries 
together,  in  great  harmony. 

They  rambled  about  in  the  woods,  for 
some  time,  meeting  with  various  adventures, 
until  they  reached  the  brook.  Neither  of 
the  boys  were  thirsty,  not  even  Rollo  ;  but 
still  he  took  a  drink  from  the  brook,  for  the 
sake  of  using  the  dipper.  He  then  amused 
himself,  for  some  time,  in  trying  to  scoop  up 
skippers  and  roundabouts,  but 'without  much 
success.  The  skippers  and  roundabouts 
have  both  been  mentioned  before.  The 
latter  were  a  sort  of  bugs,  which  had  a  re- 
markable power  of  whirling  round  and  round 


CAUGHT, AND    GONjE    AGAIN.  115 

with  the  greatest  rapidity,  upon  the  surface 
of  the  water.  While  Rollo  was  endeavoring 
to  entrap  some  of  these  animals,  the  other 
l?oys  were  picking  up  pebbles,  or  gathering 
flowers,  until  at  length  their  attention  was 
suddenly  arrested  by  a  loud  and  long  excla- 
mation of  surprise  and  pleasure  from  Rollo. 

"  What?  "  said  Henry  and  James,  looking 
towards  Rollo. 

They  saw  that  he  was  standing  at  the 
edge  of  the  water,  gazing  eagerly  into  his 
dipper. 

"  What  is  it  ? "  said  the  boys,  running 
towards  him. 

"  I  have  caught  a  little  fish,"  said  Rollo. 

True  enough,  Rollo  had  caught  a  little 
fish.  It  was  very  small,  and,  as  it  had  been 
swimming  about  there,  Rollo  had,  probably 
more  by  accident  than  skill,  got  him  into  his 
dipper,  and  there  he  was  safely  imprisoned. 

"  O,  what  a  splendid  little  fellow  !  "  said 
Henry,  crowding  his  head  in  between  Rollo 's 
and  James's,  over  the  dipper.  "  See  his 
fins !  " 

"Yes,"  said  Rollo.  "It  is  a  trout, — a 
little  trout." 

"  See  his  eyes !  "  said  James.     "  How  he 


116     CAUGHT, AND  GONE  AGAIN. 

swims  about !  What  are  you  going  to  do 
with  him,  Rollo  ?  " 

"  O,  I  shall  carry  him  home,  and  keep 
him." 

"  O,  you  can't  keep  him,"  said  James ; 
"  you  have  not  got  any  pond." 

"  Never  mind,"  said  Rollo,  "  I  can  keep 
him  in  a  bowl  in  the  house." 

"  What  shall  you  give  him  to  eat  ?  "  said 
James. 

"  Eat !  fishes  never  eat ;  they  only  drink. 
1  shall  give  him  fresh  water  every  day,  and 
that  will  keep  him  alive." 

"  They  do  eat,  too,"  said  James.  "  They 
eat  bait  off  of  the  hooks  when  we  fish  for 
them." 

Rollo  had  forgotten  this  fact  when  he 
said  that  fishes  never  ate ;  and,  having 
nothing  to  say  in  reply  to  it,  now,  he  was 
silent,  and  only  looked  at  his  fish. 

"  0,  I  wish  I  had  a  fish !  "  said  Henry. 
"If  I  had  kept  my  dipper,  now,  I  might 
have  had  one." 

"  I  don't  believe  you  could  have  caught 
one,"  said  Rollo. 

"  Yes,  I  could ;  and  I  believe  I  will  take 
my  dipper,  after  all,  and  catch  me  a  fish." 


CAUGHT, AND  GONE  AGAIN.     117 

"No,"  said  Rollo,  "you  lent  me  the  dip- 
per, and  I  lent  you  my  basket  instead  ;  and 
now  1  must  keep  it  till  we  get  home." 

"No,"  said  Henry,  "it  is  my  dipper,  and 
I  only  lent  it  to  you ;  and  I  have  a  right  to 
it  whenever  I  want  it.  So  you  must  give  it 
to  me." 

But  Rollo  was  very  far  from  being  con- 
vinced that  he  ought  to  give  back  the  dipper 
then.  He  had  borrowed  it,  he  said,  for  the 
whole  expedition,  and  he  had  a  right  to  keep 
it  till  he  got  home.  Besides,  he  had  a  fish 
in  it,  and  there  was  nothing  that  he  could 
do  with  him,  if  Henry  took  away  the  dipper. 

But  Henry  said  he  did  not  think  of  catch- 
ing a  little  fish  in  his  dipper,  when  he  lent 
it  to  Rollo.  If  he  had,  he  should  not  have 
]ent  it  to  him.  He  only  lent  it  to  him  to 
get  raspberries  in.  But  Rollo  insisted  that 
he  had  lent  it  to  him  for  the  whole  expedi- 
tion, and  to  put  any  thing  in  it  he  pleased. 

After  some  time  spent  in  this  discussion, 
Rollo  finally  yielded.  He  was,  in  fact,  some- 
what ashamed  of  the  part  he  had  taken  in 
the  former  difficulty,  and  had  secretly  re- 
solved to  be  more  good-natured  and  yielding 


118     CAUGHT, AND  GONE  AGAIN. 

in  future.  So  he  gave  the  dipper  back  to 
Henry. 

Before  he  did  this,  however,  Henry  said 
that  he  would  be  very  careful  not  to  lose 
Rollo's  fish. 

"  I  will  only  dip  the  dipper  in  again," 
said  he,  "  very  carefully,  to  catch  another 
fish,  without  letting  yours  get  out.  Then 
we  can  carry  both  to  your  house,  and  put 
yours  in  the  bowl;  and  then  I  can  carry 
mine  home  in  the  dipper." 

So  Rollo  gave  the  dipper  back  to  Henry, 
though  very  reluctantly. 

Henry  carried  it  carefully  down  to  the 
bank  of  the  brook.  He  stood  upon  a  little 
sloping  shore  of  sand  and  pebbles,  and  began 
to  watch  for  the  little  minnows  which  were 
swimming  about  in  the  deep  places.  He 
immersed  his  dipper  partially  in  the  water,, 
being  very  careful  not  to  plunge  it  in  entire- 
ly, lest  Rollo's  fish  should  escape.  Whenevei 
he  made  an  attempt,  however,  to  catch  a  fish, 
he  was  obliged  to  plunge  it  in ;  but  he  did 
it  very  quick,  so  as  not  to  give  the  prisoner, 
already  taken,  time  to  escape. 

At  last,  a  fish,  larger  than  any  he  had  seen, 


CAUGHT, AND  GONE  AGAIN.     119 

came  moving  slowly  along,  out  from  a  deep 
place  under  a  large  log,  which  lay  imbedded 
in  the  bank.  Henry  made  a  sudden  plunge 
after  him.*  He  drew  up  his  dipper  again, 
confident  that  he  had  caught  him  j  but,  on 
looking  into  the  dipper,  no  fish  was  to  be 
seen.  The  bird  in  the  hand,  and  the  bird 
in  the  bush,  were  both  gone. 

The  boys  tried  for  a  long  time,  in  vain,  to 
catch  another  fish.  Rollo  was  sadly  disap- 
pointed at  the  loss  of  the  one  he  had  caught, 
but  there  was  now  no  help  for  it;  and  so 
they  ail  slowly  returned  home  together. 

*  See  Frontispiece. 


♦  ■ 


120 


THE    BAILMENT    CASES. 


As  the  boys  were  slowly  coming  up  the 
lane,  towards  the  house,  they  saw  Mary  and 
Lucy  in  the  garden.  They  went  round 
into  the  garden  to  see  what  they  were 
doing. 

They  found  them  seated  upon  a  bench  in 
a  pleasant  part  of  the  garden ;  it  was  the 
same  bench  were  Rollo  had  once  undertaken 
to  establish  a  hive  of  bees.  Mary  was  teach- 
ing Lucy  how  to  draw  pictures  upon  lilac 
leaves,  and  other  leaves  which  they  gathered, 
here  and  there,  in  the  garden. 

The  boys  came  up  and  asked  to  see  what 
the  girls  were  doing.  The  girls  did  not  say 
to  them,  as  girls  sometimes  do  in  such  cases, 
'  It  is  none  of  your  concern,  —  you  go  off 
out  of  the  garden,  we  don't  want  you  here.' 
They  very  politely  showed  them  their  leaf 
sketches,  —  and  the  boys,  at  the  same  time, 
with  equal  politeness,  offered  them  some  of 
their  raspberries.     In  the  course  of  the  con- 


• 


THE    BAILMENT    CASES.  121 

versation,  as  they  sat  and  stood  there,  Rollo 
said  to  his  sister, 

"  Henry  lost  my  fish,  Mary,  and  ought  he 
not  to  pay  me?" 

"  Your  fish  ?  "  asked  Mary. 

"  Yes,"  said  Rollo ;  "  I  caught  a  fish  in  a 
dipper." 

"  And  how  came  Henry  to  have  it  ?  " 

"  O,  I  let  him  have  it,  to  catch  another. 
He  made  me." 

Henry  had  some  secret  feeling  that  he 
had  not  done  quite  right  in  the  transaction, 
though  he  did  not  know  exactly  how  he  had 
done  wrong.  He  did  not  make  any  reply 
to  Rollo's  charge,  but  stood  back,  looking 
somewhat  confused. 

"  Ought  he  not  to  pay  me?"  repeated 
Rollo. 

"  It  seems  to  be  a  case  of  bailment,"  said 
Mary. 

"  O  yes,"  said  Rollo,  who  now  recollected 
his  father's  conversation  on  that  subject  some 
days  before. 

"  And  so,  you  know,  the  question,"  con- 
tinued Mary,  "  whether  he  ought  to  pay  or 
not,  depends  upon  circumstances." 

"  Well,"  said  Rollo,  who  began  to  recall 

/      n 


122  THE    BAILMENT    CASES. 

to  mind  the  principles  which  his  father  had 
laid  down  upon  the  subject,  "  it  was  for  his 
benefit,  not  mine,  and  so  he  ought  to  pay." 

All  this  conversation  about  bailment,  and 
about  its  being  for  his  benefit,  not  Rollo's, 
was  entirely  unintelligible  to  Henry,  who 
had  never  studied  the  law  of  bailment  at  all. 
He  looked  first  at  Mary,  and  then  at  Rollo, 
and  finally  said, 

"I  don't  understand  what  you  mean." 

So  Mary  explained  to  him  what  her  father 
had  said.  She  told  him,  first,  that  whenever 
one  boy  intrusted  his  property  of  any  kind 
to  the  hands  of  another  boy,  it  was  a  bail- 
ment; and  that  the  question  whether  the 
one  who  took  the  thing  ought  to  pay  for  it, 
if  it  was  lost,  depended  upon  the  degree  of 
care  he  took  of  it,  considered  in  connection 
with  the  question,  whether  the  bailment  was 
for  the  benefit  of  the  bailor,  or  the  bailee. 

"  What  is  bailor  and  the  bailee  ?  "  said 
Henry. 

"  Why,  Rollo  bailed  you  his  fish,"  said 
Mary.     "  Rollo  was  bailor,  and  you  bailee." 

"No,"  said  Henry,  "he  only  gave  me 
back  my  dipper,  and  the  fish  was  in  it." 

Mary  asked  for  an   explanation   of  this, 


THE    BAILMENT    CASES.  123 

and  the  boys  related  all  the  circumstances. 
Mary  said  it  was  an  intricate  case. 

"  I  don't  understand  it  exactly/5  said 
Mary.  "You  returned  him  his  property 
which  you  had  borrowed,  and  at  the  same 
time  put  into  his  hands  some  property  of 
your  own.  I  don't  know  whether  it  ought 
to  be  considered  as  only  giving  him  back 
his  dipper,  or  bailing  him  the  fish." 

"I  did  not  want  the  fish"  said  Henry. 

"No,"  said  Mary.  "'It  is  a  knotty  case. 
Let  us  go  and  ask  father  about  it." 

"  O,  /  don't  want  to  go,"  said  Henry. 

"Yes,  I  would,"  said  Mary.  "I'll  be 
your  lawyer,  and  manage  your  side  of  the 
question  for  you ;  and  we  will  get  a  regular 
decision." 

"  Well,"  said  Henry,  reluctantly.  And 
all  the  children  followed  Mary  and  Lucy 
towards  the  house. 

They  found  Rollo's  father  in  his  room, 
examining  some  maps  and  plans  which  were 
spread  out  upon  the  table  before  him.  When 
he  saw  the  children  coming  in,  he  asked 
Mary,  who  was  foremost,  what  they  wanted. 
She  said  they  had  a  law  question,  which 
they  wanted  him  to  decide, 


124  THE    BAILMENT    CASES. 

"  A  law  question? "  said  he. 

"  Yes,"  she  replied ;  "  a  case  of  bailment." 

"  O,  very  well;  walk  in,"  said  he. 

There  was  a  sofa  at  one  side  of  the  room, 
and  he  seated  the  children  all  there,  while 
he  drew  up  his  arm-chair  directly  before 
them.  He  then  told  them  to  proceed. 
Rollo  first  told  the  whole  story,  closing  his 
statement  by  saying, 

"  And  so  I  let  him  have  my  fish ;  and 
that  was  a  bailment,  and  it  was  not  for  my 
benefit,  but  his,  and  so  he  ought  to  have 
taken  very  especial  care  of  it.  But  he  did 
not,  and  lost  it,  and  so  he  ought  to  pay." 

"But  we  maintain,"  said  Mary,  "that  the 
fish  was  not  bailed  to  Henry  at  all.  Rollo 
only  gave  him  back  the  dipper,  and,  though 
the  fish  was  in  it,  still  the  fish  did  not  do 
Henry  any  good,  and  so  it  was  not  for  his 
benefit." 

"  It  seems  to  be  rather  an  intricate  case," 
said  her  father,  smiling. 

Henry  looked  rather  sober  and  anxious. 
The  proceedings  seemed  to  him  to  be  a  very 
serious  business. 

However,  Rollo's  father  spoke  to  him  in  a 
very  kind  and  good-humored  tone,  so  that, 


THE    BAILMENT    CASES.  125 

before  long,  he  began  to  feel  at  his  ease. 
After  hearing  a  full  statement  of  the  case, 
and  all  the  arguments  which  the  children 
had  to  offer  on  one  side  or  the  other, 
Rollo's  father  began  to  give  his  decision,  as 
follows :  — 

"  I  think  that  Rollo's  giving  Henry  the 
dipper,  with  the  fish  in  it,  was  clearly  a  bail- 
ment of  the  fish  ;  that  is,  it  was  an  intrust- 
ing of  his  property  to  Henry's  care.  It  is 
clear  also  that  Henry  took  pretty  good  care 
of  it.  He  tried  to  avoid  losing  it.  He  took 
as  much  care  of  it,  perhaps,  as  he  would 
have  done  of  a  fish  of  his  own.  Still,  he  did 
not  take  very  extraordinary  or  special  care 
of  it.  The  loss  was  not  owing  to  inevitable 
accident.  If  the  bailment  was  for  Rollo's 
benefit,  the  care  he  took  was  sufficient  to 
save  him  from  being  liable ;  but,  if  it  was 
for  his  own  benefit,  then  all  he  did  was  at 
his  own  risk ;  and  the  loss  ought  to  be  his 
loss,  and  he  ought  to  pay  for  it." 

"But  I  don't  see,"  said  Mary,  "'that  he 
was  to  blame  in  either  case." 

"  0,  no,"  said  his  father  ;  "  he  was  not  to 
blame  for  losing  the  fish,  perhaps.  That  is 
not  the  point  in  these  cases.  It  is  not  a 
11* 


126 


THE    BAILMENT    CASES. 


question  of  who  is  to  blame,  but  who  ought 
to  bear  a  loss,  for  which  perhaps  nobody  is 
to  blame. 

"  And  you  see,"  he  continued,  "  that  it  is 
reasonable  that  the  loss  should  be  borne  by 
the  person  who  was  to  have  derived  benefit 
from  the  risk.  If  the  risk  was  run  for 
Henry's  benefit,  then  he  ought  to  bear  the 
loss ;  which  he  would  do  by  making  Rollo 
compensation.  If  the  risk  was  run  for 
Rollo's  benefit,  then  Rollo  ought  to  bear  the 
Joss  himself." 

"Yes,  sir,"  said  Rollo;  "and  it  certainly 
was  for  Henry's  benefit,  for  he  was  trying  to 
catch  another  fish  for  himself,  —  not  for  me. 
I  had  no  advantage  in  it." 

"  That  is  not  so  certain,"  replied  his 
father.  "  It  depends  altogether  upon  the 
question,  who  had  a  right  to  the  dipper  at 
that  time.  If  Henry  had  a  right  to  the  dip- 
per, then  he  might  have  even  poured  out  the 
water,  fish  and  all ;  or  he  might  have  kept 
the  fish  in,  to  accommodate  Rollo.  On  the 
other  hand,  if  Rollo  had  a  right  to  the  dipper 
then,  and  he  let  Henry  have  it,  as  a  favor 
to  him,  then,  in  that  case,  the  bailment  was 
for  Henry's  benefit." 


THE    BAILMENT    CASES.  127 

"Well,  sir,"  said  Henry,  "I  had  a  right  to 
the  dipper,  for  it  was  mine ;  and  so  it  was 
for  his  benefit,  and  I  ought  not  to  pay." 

"No,  sir,"  said  Rollo;  "he  had  let  me 
have  it,  and  I  let  him  have  my  basket." 

"  I  only  lent  it  to  him,"  said  Henry. 

"  But  you  lent  it  to  me  for  the  whole 
walk,"  said  Rollo,  turning  round  to  Henry. 

"  You  must  only  speak  to  me,"  said  his 
father.  "  In  all  debates  and  arguments, 
always  speak  to  the  one  who  is  presiding." 

"  Well,  sir,"  said  Rollo,  turning  back  to 
his  father,  again,  "  he  lent  it  to  me  for  the 
whole  walk,  and  so  I  don't  think  he  had  any 
right  to  take  it  back  again." 

"  That  is  coming  to  the  point  exactly," 
said  his  father.  "  It  all  depends  upon  that,  — 
whether  Henry  had  a  right  to  reclaim  his 
dipper  at  that  time,  after  only  lending  it  to 
Rollo.  And  that,  you  see,  is  another  bail- 
ment case.  Henry  bailed  Rollo  the  dipper. 
This  shows  the  truth  of  what  I  said  before, 
that  a  great  many  of  the  disputes  among 
boys  arise  from  cases  of  bailment.  This 
seems  to  be  a  sort  of  doubled  and  twisted 
case.  And  it  all  hinges  on  the  question 
whether  Henry  or  Rollo  had  the  right  to  the 


128  THE    BAILMENT    CASES. 

dipper  at  the  time  when  Henry  took  it.  For, 
as  I  have  already  explained,  if  Heiiry  had  a 
right  to  it,  then  his  keeping  Rollo's  fish  in  it 
was  for  Rollo's  advantage,  and  Rollo  ought 
to  bear  the  loss.  But  if  Rollo  had  a  right  to 
keep  the  dipper  longer,  then  he  bailed  the 
fish  to  him,  in  order  to  be  able  to  let  him 
have  the  dipper,  for  he  could  not  let  him 
have  the  one  without  the  other ;  and  so  it 
was  for  Henry's  benefit ;  and,  as  the  loss  was 
not  from  inevitable  accident,  Henry  ought 
to  bear  it." 

"  Well,  sir,  and  now  please  to  tell  us,"  said 
Mary,  *  who  had  the  right  to  the  dipper." 

"  Rollo,"  said  her  father. 

"  Rollo  !  "  exclaimed  several  voices. 

"  Yes,"  replied  Rollo's  father.  "  There  is 
a  principle  in  the  law  of  bailment  which  I 
did  not  explain  to  you  the  other  day.  It  is 
this :  Whenever  a  person  bails  a  thing  to 
another  person,  for  a  particular  purpose,  and 
receives  a  compensation  for  it,  the  bailor  has 
no  right  to  take  it  back  again  from  the  bailee, 
until  a  fair  opportunity  has  been  allowed  to 
accomplish  that  purpose.  For  instance,  if  I 
go  and  hire  a  horse  of  a  man  to  make  a 
journey,  I  have  a  right  to  keep  the  horse 


THE    BA1LMEN       CASES.  129 

until  the  journey  is  ended.  If  the  owner  of 
the  horse  meets  me  on  the  road,  fifty  miles 
from  home,  it  is  not  reasonable,  you  see,  that 
he  should  have  the  right  to  take  the  horse 
away  from  me  there,  on  the  ground  that  it 
is  his  horse,  and  that  he  has  a  right  to  him 
wherever  he  finds  him.  So,  if  one  boy  lends 
another  his  knife  to  make  a  whistle  with,  he 
ought  not  to  take  it  away  again,  when  the 
boy  has  got  his  whistle  half  done,  and  so 
make  him  lose  all  his  labor." 

"  Why,  it  seems  to  me  he  ought  to  give 
it  back  to  him,"  said  Rollo,  "if  it  is  his 
knife,  whenever  he  wants  it." 

"  Yes,"  replied  his  father,  "  he  ought  to 
give  it  up,  no  doubt,  if  the  owner  claims  it ; 
and  yet  perhaps  the  owner  might  do  wrong 
in  claiming  it.  Though  I  am  not  certain, 
after  all,  how  it  is  in  case  a  thing  is  lent 
gratuitously." 

"  What  is  gratuitously  ?  "  said  Rollo. 

"  Why,  for  nothing ;  without  any  pay. 
Perhaps  the  bailor  has  a  right  to  claim  his 
property  again,  at  any  time,  if  it  is  bailed 
gratuitously,  though  I  am  not  certain.  I 
will  ask  some  lawyer  when  I  have  an  oppor- 
tunity.    But  when  a  thing  is  let  for  pay,  or 


130  THE    BAILMENT    CASES. 

bailed  on  contract  in  any  way,  I  am  sure  the 
bailor  ought  to  leave  it  in  the  hands  of  the 
bailee,  until  the  purpose  is  accomplished ;  or, 
at  least,  until  there  has  been  a  fair  opportu- 
nity to  accomplish  it. 

"  Wherefore  I  decide  that,  as  Henry  intend- 
ed to  let  Rollo  have  the  dipper  for  the  whole 
expedition,  and  as  he  took  Rollo 's  basket, 
and  Rollo  agreed  to  let  him  have  some 
drink,  as  conditions,  therefore,  he  ought  not 
to  have  reclaimed  the  dipper.  Since  he  did 
reclaim  it,  Rollo  did  perfectly  right  to  give 
it  up,  fish  and  all ;  and  as  he  did  so,  it  was 
a  bailment  for  the  benefit  of  the  bailee,  that 
is,  Henry.  And  of  course  it  was  at  his  risk, 
and,  in  strict  justice,  Rollo  has  a  right  to 
claim  compensation  for  the  loss  of  his  fish. 
But  then  I  should  hope  he  won't  insist 
upon  it." 

"  Well,  sir,"  said  Rollo,  "  I  don't  care 
much  about  it  now." 

"  You  see,  Henry,"  continued  Rollo's 
father,  "  I  haven't  been  talking  about  this  all 
this  time  on  account  of  the  value  of  the  fish, 
but  to  have  you  understand  some  of  the 
principles  you  ought  to  regard,  when  any 


THE    BAILMENT    CASES.  131 


other's  property  is  in  your  possession.  So, 
now,  you  may  all  go." 

"  Well,  uncle,"  said  James,  as  the  children 
rose  from  their  seats,  "haven't  you  got  some 
great  box  that  we  can  have  for  our  cabinet  ?  " 

"  Your  cabinet  ?  "  asked  his  uncle. 

"  Yes,  sir,  we  want  to  make  a  museum." 

"  Why,  Rollo  has  got  a  cabinet.  Jonas 
made  him  one." 

"  Yes,  sir ;  but  he  wants  his  for  himself, 
and  we  want  one  for  our  society." 

"You  may  have  mine,  now,"  said  Rollo  j 
"I  am  not  going  to  have  one  alone.  I  have 
concluded  to  let  you  have  mine.     Come." 

So  Rollo  moved  on,  as  if  he  wished  to  go. 
In  fact,  he  had  an  instinctive  feeling  that 
his  conduct  in  respect  to  the  cabinet  and  the 
society  would  not  bear  examination,  and  he 
wanted  to  go. 

But  his  father,  afraid  that  Rollo  had 
been  doing  some  injustice  to  his  playmates, 
stopped  the  children  and  inquired  into  the 
case.  The  children  told  him  that  they  had 
formed  a  society,  and  had  elected  Jonas  cabi- 
net keeper;  and  that  Rollo  had  afterwards 
said  he  meant  to  be  cabinet  keeper  himself, 


132  THE    BAILMENT    CASES. 

and  so  would  not  let  the  society  have  his 
cabinet  to  keep  their  curiosities  in. 

"  And  did  he  first  agree  that  the  society 
might  have  it  ? " 

" No,  sir,"  said  Rollo,  decidedly ;  "I  did 
not  agree  to  any  thing  about  it."  He 
thought  that  this  would  exonerate  him  from 
all  blame. 

"  Was  not  there  a  tacit  agreement  ? " 
asked  his  father. 

"A  tacit  agreement!"  repeated  Rollo. 
He  did  not  know  what  a  tacit  agreement 
was. 

"Yes,"  said  his  father,  "tacit  means 
silent;  a  tacit  or  implied  agreement  is  one 
which  is  made  without  being  formally  ex- 
pressed in  words.  If  it  is  onty  understood 
by  both  parties,  it  is  just  as  binding  as  if  it 
were  fully  expressed.  For  instance,  if  I  go 
into  a  bookstore,  and  ask  the  bookseller  to 
put  me  up  certain  books,  and  take  them  and 
carry  them  home,  and  then  he  charges  them 
to  me  in  his  books,  I  must  pay  for  them ; 
for,  though  I  did  not  say  any  thing  about 
paying  for  them,  yet  my  actions  consti- 
tuted an  implied  agreement  to  pay.  By 
going  in  and  getting  them,  under  those  cir- 


THE    BAILMENT    CASES.  133 

cumstances,  I,  in  fact,  tacitly  promise  that  I 
will  pay  for  them  when  the  bookseller  sends 
in  his  bill.  A  very  large  portion  of  the 
agreements  made  among  men  are  tacit 
agreements." 

The  children  all  listened  very  attentively, 
and  they  understood  very  well  what  Rollo 's 
father  was  saying.  Rollo  was  considering 
whether  there  had  been  a  tacit  agreement 
that  the  society  should  have  the  cabinet; 
but  he  did  not  speak. 

"  Now,  Rollo,  did  you  consent  to  the  for- 
mation of  the  society  ?  " 

"  Yes,  sir,"  said  Henry,  eagerly ;  "he  asked 
us  all  to  form  the  society." 

"  And  was  it  the  understanding  that  the 
museum  was  to  be  kept  in  the  cabinet  that 
Jonas  made  ? " 

"Yes,  sir,"  said  Rollo,  rather  faintly. 

"  Then,  it  seems  to  me  that  there  was  a 
tacit  agreement  on  your  part,  that  if  the 
children  would  form  the  society  and  help 
you  make  the  collection,  you  would  submit 
to  whatever  arrangements  they  might  make 
about  the  officers  and  the  charge  of  the 
cabinet.  You,  in  fact,  bailed  the  cabinet  to 
the  society." 
12 


134  THE    BAILMENT    CASES. 

"  Yes,  sir,"  said  the  children. 

"  And  as  the  bailment  was  for  your  advan- 
tage, as  well  as  theirs,  you  ought  not  to  have 
taken  possession  of  the  property  again,  until 
a  fair  opportunity  had  been  afforded  to  ac- 
complish the  purpose  of  the  bailment,  that 
is,  the  collection  of  a  cabinet  by  the  society. 
So,  you  see,  you  fell  into  the  same  fault  in 
respect  to  the  society,  that  Henry  did  in  re- 
gard to  you  in  the  case  of  the  dipper." 

The  children  were  silent ;  but  they  all 
perceived  the  justice  of  what  Rollo 's  father 
had  said. 

"  And  the  society  have  a  claim  upon  you, 
Rollo,  for  compensation  for  the  disappoint- 
ment and  trouble  you  have  caused  them  by 
taking  away  the  cabinet." 

Rollo  looked  rather  serious. 

"  O,  we  don't  care  about  it,"  said  Lucy. 

"  Well,"  said  his  father,  "  if  the  society 
release  their  claim  upon  you,  as  you  did 
yours  upon  Henry,  very  well.  I  hope,  at  all 
events,  you  will  all  go  on  pleasantly  after 
this." 

The  children  then  went  out,  and  Rollo, 
followed  by  the  other  boys,  went  to  find 
Jonas,  to  tell  him  he  might  be  cabinet  keeper. 


THE    BAILMENT    CASES.  135 

They  tried  to  tell  Jonas  the  whole  story, 
and  about  Rollo's  giving  the  fish  to  Henry, 
and  its  being  a  bailment.  But  they  could 
not  make  Jonas  understand  it  very  well. 
He  said  he  did  not  know  any  thing  about 
bailment,  except  bailing  out  boats- — he  had 
never  heard  of  bailing  fishes. 


136 


THE    CURIOSITIES 

Jonas  accepted  the  office  of  cabinet 
keeper.  He  inquired  particularly  of  the 
children  about  the  meeting  of  the  society, 
and,  as  they  stated  to  him  the  facts,  he  per- 
ceived that  Rollo  had  been  a  good  deal 
disappointed  at  not  having  been  chosen  to 
any  office.  Jonas  was  sorry  himself  that 
Rollo  could  not  have  had  some  special 
charge,  as  it  was  his  plan  at  the  beginning, 
and  the  others  had  only  joined  it  at  his 
invitation.  When  he  observed,  also,  how 
good-naturedly  Rollo  acquiesced, — for  he 
did  at  last  acquiesce  very  good-naturedly  in- 
deed, —  he  was  the  more  sorry ;  and  so  he 
proposed  to  Rollo  that  he  should  be  assistant 
cabinet  keeper. 

"  I  shall  want  an  assistant,"  said  Jonas, 
"for  I  have  not  time  to  attend  to  the 
business  much;  I  can  give  you  directions, 
and   then  you  can   arrange   the   curiosities 


THE    CURIOSITIES.  137 

accordingly ;  and  you  can  help  me  when  I 
am  at  work  there." 

Rollo  liked  this  plan  very  much ;  and  so 
Jonas  said  that  he  might  act  as  assistant 
cabinet  keeper  until  the  next  meeting  of  the 
society,  and  then  he  would  propose  to  them 
to  choose  him  regularly.  He  told  Mary  of 
this  plan,  and  she  liked  it  very  much  in- 
deed. 

The  children  had  various  plans  for  collect- 
ing curiosities.  They  had  meetings  of  the 
society  once  a  week,  when  they  all  came  into 
the  play  room,  bringing  in  with  them  the 
articles  which  they  had  found  or  prepared. 
These  articles  were  there  exhibited  and 
admired  by  all  the  members,  and  then  were 
put  upon  the  great  work-bench,  under  the 
care  of  the  assistant  cabinet  keeper.  They 
remained  there  until  Jonas  had  time  to  look 
them  over,  and  determine  how  to  arrange 
them.  Then  he  and  Rollo  put  them  up  in 
the  cabinet,  in  good  order. 

Mary  did  not  collect  many  articles  herself ; 
but  she  used  to  tell  the  children  what  they 
could  get  or  prepare.  They  made  some  very 
pretty  collections  of  dried  plants  at  her  sug- 
'     /*  12* 


138  THE    CURIOSITIES. 

gestion.  They  would  come  to  her,  as  she 
sat  in  the  house  at  her  work,  and  there  she 
would  explain  to  them,  in  detail,  what  to 
do ;  and  then  they  would  go  away  and  do 
it,  bringing  their  work  to  her  frequently  as 
they  went  on.  In  respect  to  collections  of 
plants,  she  told  them  that  botanists  generally 
pressed  them,  and  then  fastened  them  into 
great  books,  between  the  leaves,  arranged 
according  to  the  kinds. 

"  But  you,"  said  she,  "  don't  know  enough 
of  plants  to  arrange  them  in  that  way,  —  and, 
besides,  it  would  be  too  great  an  undertaking 
for  you  to  attempt  to  prepare  a  large  collec- 
tion. But  you  might  make  a  small  collec- 
tion, and  select  and  arrange  the  flowers  in  it 
according  to  their  beauty." 

Lucy  said  she  should  like  to  do  this  very 
much,  and  so  Mary  recommended  to  her  to 
go  and  get  as  many  flowers  as  she  could 
find,  and  press  them  between  the  leaves  of 
some  old  book  which  would  not  be  injured 
by  them.  Lucy  did  so.  She  was  a  week 
or  two  in  getting  them  ready.  Then  she 
brought  them  to  Mary.  Mary  looked  them 
over,  and  said  that  many  of  them  were  very 


THE    CURIOSITIES.  139 

pretty  indeed,  and  that  she  could  make  a 
very  fine  collection  from  them. 

"  Now,"  said  she,  "  you  must  have  a  book 
to  keep  them  in." 

So  Mary  went  and  got  two  sheets  of  large, 
light-colored  wrapping  paper,  and  folded 
them  again  and  again,  until  the  leaves  were 
of  the  right  size.     Then  she  cut  the  edges. 

"Now,"  said  Mary,  "I  must  make  some 
false  leaves." 

"False  leaves!"  said  Lucy  ;  "what  are 
they  ? " 

"  O,  you  shall  see,"  replied  Mary. 

She  then  cut  one  of  the  leaves  which  she 
had  made,  into  narrow  strips,  and  put  these 
strips  between  the  true  leaves  at  the  back, 
where  they  were  folded,  in  such  a  manner, 
that,  when  she  sewed  the  book,  the  false 
leaves  would  be  sewed  in  with  the  true. 
Bat  the  false  leaves,  being  narrow  strips,  only 
made  the  back  thicker.  They  did  not  ex- 
tend out  into  the  body  of  the  book  between 
the  leaves;  but  Mary  showed  Lucy  that 
when  she  came  to  put  in  her  flowers  between 
the  true  leaves,  it  would  make  the  body  of 
the  book  as  thick  as  the  back.     They  would 


140  THE    CURIOSITIES. 

make  it  thicker,  were  it  not  for  these  false 
leaves. 

"Yes,"  said  Lucy,  "I  have  seen  false 
leaves  in  scrap  books,  made  to  paste  pictures 
in.  I  always  thought  that  they  made  the 
leaves  whole,  first,  arid  then  cut  them 
out." 

"  No,"  said  Mary,  "  that  would  be  a  great 
waste  of  paper.  It  is  very  easy  to  make 
them  by  sewing  in  narrow  strips." 

Mary  then  asked  Lucy  to  sit  up  at  the 
table,  and  select  some  of  her  prettiest  flow- 
ers, —  some  large,  and  some  small,  — enough 
to  fill  up  one  page  of  her  book ;  and  then 
to  arrange  them  on  the  page  in  such  a  way 
as  to  produce  the  best  effect ;  and  Lucy  did 
so.  Then  she  gummed  each  one  down  upon 
the  page,  by  touching  the  under  side,  here 
and  there,  with  some  gum  arabic,  dissolved 
in  water,  but  made  very  thick.  When  she 
had  done  one  page,  she  turned  the  leaf  over 
very  carefully,  and  laid  a  book  upon  it,  and 
then  proceeded  to  make  selections  of  flowers 
for  the  second  page.  In  this  manner  she 
went  on  through  the  book,  and  it  made  a 
very   beautiful   book   indeed.     Mary  put  a 


THE    CURIOSITIES.  141 

cover  and  a  title-page  to  it ;  and  on  the  title- 
page,  she  wrote  the  title,  thus  :  — 


A 

COLLECTION 

OF 

COMMON    FLOWERS, 

BY 

LUCY. 

When  it  was  all  ready,  it  was  presented 
to  the  society,  and  put  into  the  cabinet, 
where  it  was  long  known  by  the  name  of 
"  Lucy's  Collection.1''  She  wrote  the  name 
of  each  plant  under  it,  as  fast  as  she  could 
find  out  the  names ;  and,  whenever  visitors 
came  to  see  the  museum,  she  would  ask 
them  the  name  of  any  of  the  flowers  in  her 
collection  which  she  did  not  know,  and 
then  wrote  the  name  down.  Thus,  after  a 
time,  nearly  all  the  names  were  entered ;  and 
so,  whenever  the  children  found  any  flower 
which  they  di'd  not  know,  they  would  some- 
times go  and  look  over  Lucy's  collection, 


142  THE    CURIOSITIES. 

and  there  perhaps  they  would  find  the  very 
flower  with  its  name  under  it. 

This  museum  lasted  several  years;  and 
the  next  spring,  Rollo  made  his  collection 
of  flowers,  which  was  larger  than  Lucy's. 
Mary  helped  him  about  it.  At  first,  he  was 
going  to  have  it  in  a  larger  book ;  but  Mary 
thought  it  would  be  better  to  have  all  the 
books  of  a  size,  and  then  they  would  lie 
together  very  compactly,  in  a  pile ;  which 
would  not  be  the  case  if  they  had  several 
books  of  different  sizes.  She  said  if  any 
one  wanted  to  make  a  larger  collection,  he 
had  better  have  several  volumes.  Rollo 
made  volume  after  volume,  until  at  last  his 
collection  consisted  of  six. 

There  was  one  collection  of  leaves  ;  Henry 
made  it.  His  object  was  to  see  how  many 
different-shaped  leaves  he  could  get.  He 
did  not  regard  the  little  differences  which 
exist  between  the  leaves  of  the  same  tree, 
but  only  the  essential  differences  of  shape ; 
such  as  between  the  leaf  of  the  oak  and  of 
the  maple.  Two  or  three  pages  were  devo- 
ted to  leaves  of  forest-trees,  and  they  looked 
very  beautiful  indeed.  Leaves,  being  natur- 
ally flat,  can  be  pressed  very  easily,  and  they 


THE    CURIOSITIES.  143 

generally  preserve  their  colors  pretty  well. 
One  page  was  devoted  to  the  leaves  of  ever- 
greens, such  as  the  pine,  fir,  spruce,  hemlock ; 
and  they  made  a  singular  appearance,  they 
were  so  small  and  slender.  A  little  sprig  of 
pine  leaves  was  put  in  the  centre,  and  the 
others  around.  Then  there  were  the  leaves 
of  fruit-trees  and  plants,  such  as  the  apple, 
pear,  peach,  plum,  raspberry,  strawberry,  cur- 
rant, gooseberry,  Sic,  arranged  by  them- 
selves ;  and  there  were  half  a  dozen  pages 
devoted  to  bright-colored  leaves,  gathered  in 
the  autumn,  after  the  frost  had  come.  These 
pages  looked  very  splendidly.  The  names 
of  the  plants  to  which  all  these  leaves 
belonged  were  written  under  them,  and  also 
the  name  given  by  botanists  to  indicate  the 
particular  shape  of  the  leaf ;  these  names  the 
children  found  in  books  of  botany.  Such,  for 
instance,  as  serrated,  which  means  notched 
all  around  the  edge  with  teeth  like  a  saw, 
like  the  strawberry  leaf;  and  cordate,  which 
means  shaped  like  a  heart,  as  the  lilac  leaf 
is,  and  many  others. 

There  was  also  a  collection  of  brakes  that 
Rollo  made,  which  the  children  liked  to  look 
over  very  much.     There  is  a  great  variety 


144  THE    CURIOSITIES. 

in  the  forms  of  brakes,  or  ferns,  and  yet  they 
are  all  regular  and  beautiful,  and  are  so  flat 
that  they  are  easily  pressed  and  preserved. 
But  of  all  the  botanical  collections  which 
were  formed  and  deposited  in  this  museum, 
one  of  the  prettiest  was  a  little  collection  of 
petals^  which  Rollo's  mother  made.  Petals 
are  the  colored  leaves  of  flowers,  —  those 
which  form  the  flower  itself.  Sometimes 
the  flower  cannot  be  pressed  very  well 
whole,  and  yet,  if  you  take  off  one  of  its 
petals,  you  find  that  that  will  press  very 
easily,  and  preserve  its  color  finely.  So 
Rollo's  mother,  every  day,  when  she  saw  a 
flower,  would  put  one  of  the  leaves  into  a 
book,  and  after  a  time  she  had  a  large  col- 
lection,— red,  and  white,  and  blue,  and 
yellow,  and  brown,  in  fact,  of  almost  every 
color.  Then  she  made  a  little  book  of  white 
paper,  because  she  thought  the  colors  and 
forms  of  these  delicate  petals  would  appear 
to  better  advantage  on  a  smooth,  white 
ground.  She  then  made  a  selection  from  all 
which  she  had  preserved,  and  arranged  them 
upon  the  pages  of  her  little  book,  so  as  to 
bring  a  great  variety  both  of  form  and  color 
upon  a  page  j  and  yet  forms  and  colors  so 


THE    CURIOSITIES.  145 

selected  that  all  that  was  upon  one  page 
should  be  in  keeping  and  harmony. 

But  it  was  not  merely  the  botanical  col- 
lections in  the  museum  which  interested  the 
children.  They  had  some  philosophical 
apparatus.  There  was  what  the  boys  called 
a  sucker,  which  consisted  of  a  round  piece 
of  sole  leather,  about  as  big  as  a  dollar,  with 
a  string  put  through  the  middle,  and  a  stop- 
knot  in  the  end  of  it,  to  keep  the  string  from 
coming  entirely  through ;  then,  when  the 
leather  was  wet,  the  boys  could  just  pat  it 
down  upon  a  smooth  stone,  and  then  lift  the 
stone  by  the  string  :  the  sucker  appearing  to 
stick  to  the  stone  very  closely.  Rollo  did 
not  understand  how  the  sucker  could  lift  so 
well ;  his  father  said  it  was  by  the  pressure 
of  the  atmosphere,  but  in  a  way  that  Rollo 
was  not  old  enough  to  understand. 

Then  there  was  what  the  boys  called  a 
circular  saw,  made  of  a  flat,  circular  piece  of 
lead,  as  large  as  the  top  of  a  tea  cup.  Jonas 
had  hammered  it  out  of  a  bullet.  There 
were  saw-teeth  cut  all  around  the  circumfer- 
ence, and  two  holes  bored  through  the  lead, 
at  a  little  distance  from  the  centre,  one 
on  each  side.  There  was  a  string  passed 
£13 


146  THE    CURIOSITIES. 

through  these  holes,  and  then  the  ends  were 
tied  together ;  and  to  put  the  circular  saw  in 
motion,  this  string  was  held  over  the  two 
hands,  as  the  string  is  held  when  you  first 
begin  to  play  cat's-cradle.  Then,  by  a 
peculiar  motion,  this  saw  could  be  made  to 
whirl  very  swiftly,  by  pulling  the  two  hands 
apart,  and  then  letting  them  come  together 
again,  —  the  string  twisting  and  untwisting 
alternately,  all  the  time.  There  were  vari- 
ous other  articles  of  apparatus  for  performing 
philosophical  experiments ;  such  as  a  prism, 
a  magnet,  pipes  for  blowing  soap  bubbles,  a 
syringe,  or  squirt-gun,  as  the  boys  called  it, 
made  of  a  reed,  which  may  be  said  to  be  a 
philosophical  instrument. 

Jonas  made  a  collection  of  specimens  of 
wood,  which  was,  on  the  whole,  very  curious, 
as  well  as  somewhat  useful.  As  he  was  at 
work  sawing  wood  from  day  to  day,  he  laid 
aside  small  specimens  of  the  different  kinds  ; 
as  oak,  maple,  beech,  ash,  fir,  cedar,  &c. 
He  generally  chose  small,  round  pieces,  about 
as  large  round  as  a  boy's  arm,  and  sawed  off 
a  short  piece  about  three  inches  long.  This 
he  split  into  quarters,  and  reserved  one  quar- 
ter for  his  specimen,  throwing  the  others 


THE    CURIOSITIES.  147 

away.  This  quarter  had,  of  course,  three 
sides ;  one  was  covered  with  bark,  and  the 
other  two  were  the  split  sides.  As  fast  as 
Jonas  got  these  specimens  split  out  in  this 
manner,  he  put  them  in  the  barn,  upon  a 
shelf,  near  the  bench ;  and  then,  one  day,  he 
took  them  one  by  one,  and  planed  one  of 
the  split  sides  of  each,  and  then  smoothed  it 
perfectly  with  sand  paper. 

Rollo,  who  was  standing  by  at  the  time, 
asked  him  why  he  did  not  plane  them  all 
around. 

"  O,  because,"  said  Jonas,  "  they  are  for 
specimens,  and  so  we  want  them  to  show 
the  bark  on  one  side,  and  the  wood  on  the 
other  side,  in  its  natural  state  ;  and  the  third 
side  is  enough  to  show  its  appearance  when 
it  is  manufactured. " 

"  Manufactured!  "  said  Rollo. 

"  Yes,"  said  Jonas ;  "  planed  and  varnished, 
as  it  is  when  it  is  made  into  furniture." 

"  Are  you  going  to  varnish  the  sides  that 
you  plane  ?  " 

Jonas  said  he  was ;  and  he  did  so.  He 
planed  one  side,  and  one  end.  He  varnished 
the  planed  side,  and  pasted  a  neat  little  label 
on  the  planed  end.     On  the  label  he  wrote 


148  THE    CURIOSITIES. 

the  name  of  the  wood,  and  some  very  brief 
account  of  its  qualities  and  uses,  when  he 
knew  what  they  were.  For  instance,  on  the 
end  of  the  specimen  of  walnut,  was  written 
in  a  very  close  but  plain  hand  —  ! 

Walnut,  very  tough  and  hard.    Used  for  handles. 

After  Jonas  had  got  as  many  specimens  as 
he  could,  from  the  wood  pile,  he  used  to  cut 
others  in  the  woods,  when  he  happened  to 
be  there,  of  kinds  which  are  not  commonly 
cut  for  fuel.  In  this  way  he  got,  after  a 
time,  more  than  twenty  different  kinds, 
and  when  they  were  all  neatly  varnished 
and  labelled,  it  made  a  very  curious  collec- 
tion ;  and  it  was  very  useful,  too,  sometimes ; 
for  whenever  the  boys  found  any  kind  of  a 
tree  in  the  woods  which  they  did  not  know, 
all  they  had  to  do,  was  to  cut  a  branch  of  it 
off,  and  bring  it  to  the  museum,  and  com- 
pare it  with  Jonas' s  specimens.  In  this  way, 
before  long,  they  learned  the  names  of  nearly 
all  the  trees  which  grew  in  the  woods  about 
there. 

There  was  a  curious  circumstance  which 
happened  in  respect  to  Rollo's  hemlock-seed. 
It  has  already  been  said  that  this  supposed 


THE    CURIOSITIES.  149 

hemlock-seed  was  really  a  chrysalis.  Now, 
a  chrysalis  is  that  form  which  all  caterpillars 
assume,  before  they  change  into  butterflies  ; 
and  the  animal  remains  within,  generally 
for  some  time,  in  a  dormant  state  ;  —  all  the 
time,  however,  making  a  slow  progress 
towards  its  development.  Now,  Rollo's  great 
chrysalis  remained  in  a  conspicuous  posi- 
tion, upon  the  middle  shelf  in  the  cabi- 
net, for  some  weeks.  Rollo  always  insisted, 
when  he  showed  it  to  visitors,  that  it  was  a 
hemlock-seed.  Jonas  said  he  knew  it  was 
not ;  and  he  did  not  believe  it  was  any  kind 
of  seed.  But  then  he  confessed  that  he  did 
not  know  what  it  was,  and  Rollo  considered 
that  he  had  his  father's  authority  for  believ- 
ing it  to  be  a  hemlock-seed,  because  his 
father  had  said  he  thought  it  might  be  so, 
judging  however  only  by  Rollo's  description, 
without  having  seen  it  at  all.  Rollo  always 
asserted  very  confidently  that  it  was  a  hem- 
lock-seed, and  that  he  was  going  to  plant  it 
the  next  spring. 

In  the  mean  time,  the  humble  caterpillar 
within,  unconscious  of  the  conspicuous  posi- 
tion to  which  he  had  been  elevated,  and  the 
distinguished  marks  of  attention  he  received 
13* 


150  THE    CURIOSITIES. 

from  many  visitors,  went  slowly  on  m  his 
progress  towards  a  new  stage  of  being. 
When  the  time  was  fully  come,  he  very 
cool".y  gnawed  a  hole  in  one  end  of  his 
glossy  shell,  and  laboriously  pushed  himself 
through,  his  broad  and  beautiful  wings  fold- 
ed up  compactly  by  his  side.  When  he  was 
fairly  liberated,  he  stood  for  two  hours  per- 
fectly silent  and  motionless  upon  the  shelf, 
while  his  wings  gradually  expanded,  and 
assumed  their  proper  form  and  dimensions. 
Tt  was  rather  dark,  for  the  doors  were  closed  ; 
and  yet  sufficient  light  came  through  the 
crevices  of  Jonas's  cabinet,  to  enable  him  to 
see  the  various  objects  around  him,  though 
he  took  very  little  notice  of  them.  It  was  a 
strange  thing  for  him  to  be  shut  up  in  such 
a  place,  with  no  green  trees,  or  grass,  or 
flowers  around ;  but  having  never  turned 
into  a  butterfly  before,  he  did  not  know  that 
there  was  any  thing  unusual  in  his  situation. 
He  began,  however,  in  the  course  of  six 
hours,  to  feel  decidedly  hungry;  so  he  thought 
he  would  creep  along  in  search  of  something 
to  eat.  He  tried  his  proboscis  upon  one 
curiosity  after  another,  in  vain.  The  magnet, 
the    sucker,    pebbles,   shells,   books,   every 


THE    CURIOSITIES.  151 

thing  was  hard,  dry  and  tasteless;  and  at 
length,  discouraged  and  in  despair,  he  clam- 
bered up  upon  Jonas's  specimen  of  maple, 
poised  his  broad,  black,  leopard-like  wings 
over  his  back,  and  hung  his  head  in  mute 
despair.  He  would  have  given  all  his  new- 
born glories  for  one  single  supper  from  the 
leaf  which  he  used  to  feed  upon  when  he 
was  a  worm. 

It  was  just  about  this  time,  that  Rollo, 
Lucy,  and  Jonas  happened  to  come  together 
to  the  cabinet,  to  put  in  some  new  curiosity 
which  they  had  found.  As  soon  as  Rollo 
opened  the  doors,  he  perceived  the  hole  in 
the  end  of  the  chrysalis,  which  lay  directly 
before  him.     He  seized  it  hastily. 

"  There  now,"  said  he,  in  a  tone  of  sad 
disappointment,  "  somebody  has  been  boring 
a  hole  in  my  hemlock-seed  !  " 

He  took  up  the  empty  shell,  and  looked  at 
the  hole. 

"  Why,  Jonas,"  said  he,  "how  light 
it  is!" 

Jonas  took  the  chrysalis,  weighed  it  in  his 
hand,  looked  into  the  hole,  and  then  said, 
quickly, 


152  THE    CURIOSITIES. 

"  It  is  a  chrysalis,  I  verily  believe  ;  and 
that  is  where  the  butterfly  came  out." 

"What!"  said  Rollo,  in  a  tone  of  utter 
amazement. 

li  That  hole  is  where  a  butterfly  came 
out,"  said  Jonas,  "I  have  no  doubt ;  —  and 
if  we  look  about  here  a  little,  we  shall  find 
him." 

They  immediately  began  to  look  about ; 
and  the  butterfly,  as  if  he  understood  their 
conversation,  and  perceived  the  necessity  of 
a  movement  on  his  part,  just  at  that  instant, 
expanded  his  wings,  and  floated  off  through 
the  air  into  the  middle  of  the  room,  towards 
the  bright  sunshine  which  came  in  at  the 
door.  He  alighted  upon  the  edge  of  a  barrel, 
which  stood  there.  Rollo  was  after  him  in 
a  moment,  with  his  cap  in  the  air.  The 
butterfly,  however,  was  too  hungry  to  wait. 
He  was  again  upon  the  wing.  He  soared 
away  across  the  yard,  towards  the  garden, 
and  disappeared  over  the  tops  of  the  trees. 
Rollo  and  Lucy  looked  for  him  for  some 
time  among  the  plants  and  flowers,  but  in 
vain. 

"  Never  mind,"  said   Jonas,   when   taey 


THE    CURIOSITIES.  153 

returned.  "  The  butterfly  had  rather  be 
free  ;  but  he  has  left  you  the  chrysalis  shell, 
and  that,  notwithstanding  the  hole,  is  a 
greater  curiosity  now,  than  it  was  before." 


154 


THE    SEA-SHORE. 


Rollo's  father  and  mother  were  very 
much  pleased  with  the  children's  plan  of  col- 
lecting a  cabinet.  They  often  went  out,  at 
Rollo's  request,  to  look  at  the  curiosities. 

One  evening,  about  sunset,  when  they 
were  walking  in  the  garden,  Rollo  proposed 
that,  before  they  went  into  the  house,  they 
should  go  out  and  look  at  the  museum. 
They  accordingly  walked  along,  Rollo  and 
Mary  taking  hold  of  hands  before,  and  their 
father  and  mother  walking  arm  in  arm  after 
them.  Nathan  was  behind,  riding  a  stick 
for  a  horse,  and  blowing  a  trumpet  which 
Rollo  had  made  for  him  out  of  the  stem  of 
a  pumpkin  vine. 

"  I  am  a  trooper,"  said  Nathan  to  himself, 
"  blowing  a  bugle.''  Then  he  would  whip 
his  horse,  sound  his  trumpet,  and  gallop 
along. 

When  they  reached  the  door  of  the  barn 


THE    SEA-SHORE.  155 

which  led  into  the  place  where  their  mu- 
seum was  kept,  Rollo  turned  round  and  said 
sharply, 

"■  Thanny,  be  quiet !  Don't  make  such  a 
noise." 

"  Speak  pleasantly,  Rollo,"  said  Mary. 

"  Well,  Thanny,"  said  Rollo,  taking  hold 
of  his  arm,  and  gently  turning  him  away 
from  the  door,  u  go  and  blow  your  bugle 
somewhere  else,  because  we  want  to  see  our 
curiosities." 

Thanny  made  no  reply ;  but,  being  spoken 
to  pleasantly,  he  turned  around  and  went 
galloping  off,  and  seeing  the  cat  upon  the 
fence,  he  ran  up  and  began  trumpeting  at 
her  to  frighten  her  away. 

In  the  mean  time,  Rollo 's  father  and  mother 
looked  over  the  curiosities,  as  they  had  done 
many  a  time  before.  Rollo  explained  the 
wonders,  and  his  parents  looked  and  listened 
with  great  satisfaction,  though  they  had 
been  called  upon  to  admire  the  same  things 
for  the  same  reasons,  twenty  times  before. 

uBut;  Rollo,"  said  his  father,  at  length, 
"it  appears  to  me  that  your  cabinet  has  not 
increased  much,  lately." 


156  THE    SEA-SHORE. 

"Why,  father,  we  can't  find  any  more 
curiosities.  I  wish  we  could  go  to  some 
new  place." 

"  What  new  place  can  we  go  to  ?  "  said  he. 

"  I  dcn't  know,"  said  Rollo  ;  "  some  place 
where  there  are  some  curiosities." 

"  We  might  go  to  the  sea-shore,  and  get 
some  shells,"  said  Mary. 

"  So  we  could,"  said  her  father;  "that 
would  give  you  a  fine  addition." 

"  Well,  father,"  said  Rollo,  looking  up  very 
eagerly,  "I  wish  you  would  let  us  go." 

"  I  will  think  of  it,"  said  his  father. 

Rollo  knew  that  when  his  father  said  this, 
he  meant  as  he  said,  and  that  he  would  real- 
ly think  of  it ;  —  and  consequently  that  he 
himself  ought  not  to  say  any  thing  more 
about  it.  He  accordingly  soon  began  to  talk 
to  Mary  about  other  things,  and  by  and  by 
they  went  into  the  house. 

The  next  day,  Rollo's  father  told  him  that 
they  had  concluded  to  make  a  party  to  go 
to  the  sea-shore.  There  was  a  shore  and  a 
beach  about  twelve  miles  from  where  they 
lived,  and  he  said  that  they  were  going  the 
next  day  in  the  carryall.  Rollo's  father  and 
mother,  with  Mary  and  her  cousin  Lucy, 


THE    SEA-SHORE.  157 

were  to  ride  in  the  carryall,  and  Rollo  and 
Jonas  in  the  wagon  behind. 

"  We  want  cousin  Lucy  to  go  with  us," 
said  Mr.  Holiday,  in  explaining  the  plan,  "  and 
so  there  will  not  be  quite  room  for  us  all  in 
the  carryall.  Besides,  we  shall  want  Jonas's 
help,  probably,  in  the  expedition,  and  then 
the  wagon  will  be  a  good  thing  to  bring  back 
our  treasures  in." 

"  O  father,"  said  Rollo,  "  we  shall  not  get 
more  than  a  carryall  full." 

"No,  I  suppose  not,"  said  his  father;  "but 
the  wagon  will  be  better  to  bring  stones, 
and  sand,  and  shells.  You  must  put  baskets 
in  behind,  to  pack  them  in." 

The  next  afternoon,  all  was  in  readiness 
at  the  appointed  hour.  The  carryall  was  at 
the  door,  waiting  to  receive  its  portion  of  the 
party,  and  the  wagon  was  fastened  to  a  post 
behind.  Jonas  stood  at  the  head  of  the  car- 
ryall horse,  to  hold  him  still  while  the  peo- 
ple should  be  getting  in.  Rollo  was  near 
the  wagon  horse. 

"  Shall  I  unfasten  him,  Jonas  ?  " 

"  You  can't  unfasten  him,"  said  he. 

"  O  yes,  I  can,  if  you  will  only  let  me 
try." 

14 


158  THE    SEA-SHORE. 

Rollo  approached  the  horse,  and  cautiously 
reached  out  his  hands  to  unhook  the  chain 
from  the  ring  at  the  horse's  mouth,  standing 
a  good  way  back,  and  leaning  forward  on  tip- 
toe, as  if  he  thought  the  horse  would  bite 
him, 

"What  are  you  afraid  of,  Rollo?"  said 
Jonas. 

"Nothing,"  said  Rollo;  "only  I  can't 
reach  very  well." 

"  Stand  up  nearer." 

"  But  perhaps  he  might  bite  me." 

"  Poh  !  he  never  bites,"  sail  Jonas. 
"  There  is  only  one  danger  to  guard  against, 
in  unfastening  such  a  horse  as  that." 

"  What  danger  ?  "  said  Rollo. 

"  Danger  that  he  may  step  and  tread  on 
your  foot." 

Rollo  looked  down  at  his  feet,  and  began 
to  consider  this  danger ;  but  just  then  his 
father  and  mother  came  out,  followed  by  the 
two  girls,  and  took  their  seats  in  the  carry- 
all. Jonas  then  came  to  the  wagon,  and, 
after  helping  Rollo  in,  he  got  in  himself,  and 
away  the  whole  party  went,  very  happily. 

After  riding  for  some  time,  Rollo's  mother, 
upon  looking  back  towards  the  wagon,  saw 


THE    SEA-SHORE.  159 

that  Rollo  was  making  signs  as  if  he  wanted 
them  to  stop.  She  told  Mr.  Holiday,  and  he 
accordingly  stopped  his  horse,  and  waited 
until  the  wagon  came  up.  Rollo  had  a 
plan  to  propose. 

"  Father,"  said  he,  "I  wish  you  would 
let  Jonas  come  into  the  carryall  and  drive 
you  and  mother,  and  let  Mary  and  cousin 
Lucy  come  and  ride  with  me." 

"  But  who  will  drive  ?  "  said  his  father. 

"I'll  drive,"  replied  Rollo. 

"  O  no,"  said  his  mother,  "  he  can't 
drive  ;  he  will  overturn  the  wagon." 

"  Why,  mother,  I  can  drive,"  said  Rollo. 
"I  have  been  driving  some  time." 

"I  rather  think  there  will  be  no  dan- 
ger," said  Mr.  Holiday  to  his  wife,  turning 
towards  her  as  she  sat  upon  the  back  seat. 
"  The  road  is  pretty  level  and  retired,  and  he 
will  keep  close  along  behind  the  carryall." 

Rollo's  mother  looked  rather  doubtfully, 
and  yet  she  could  not  help  feeling  a  cer- 
tain degree  of  pleasure  at  thinking  that 
Rollo  was  old  enough  to  drive  alone.  She 
accordingly  consented,  and  the  change  was 
at  once  made.  Rollo's  father  and  mother 
sat  on  the    back  seat   of   the  carryall,  and 


tGO  THE    SEA-SHORE. 

Jonas  before,  to  drive  them ;  while  Hollo, 
Mary,  and  Lucy  took  possession  of  the 
wagon. 

Rollo  drove  very  well.  He  kept  near  the 
carryall,  and  was  so  attentive  to  his  busi- 
ness as  a  driver,  and  so  successful  in  avoid- 
ing stones  and  jolts,  and  in  turning  out  for 
the  various  vehicles  they  met  upon  the  road, 
that  his  father  let  him  drive  so  all  the  rest 
of  the  way. 

They  gradually  approached  the  sea-shore. 
The  country  grew  wild  and  hilly,  and  great 
ledges  of  rocks  were  seen  in  the  fields  and 
by  the  road  side.  At  length,  upon  the  sum- 
mit of  a  long  ascent,  the  broad  sea  burst  into 
view,  stretching  along  the  horizon  before 
them,  smooth  and  glassy,  with  here  and 
there  a  small  white  sail  almost  motionless 
in  the  distance.  Below  them  was  a  long, 
sandy  beach.  The  surf  was  breaking 
against  it.  A  swell  of  the  sea,  of  the  whole 
length  of  the  beach,  would  rise  and  advance, 
growing  higher  and  more  distinct  as  it 
approached,  and  then  it  would  break  «ver 
upon  the  shore  in  one  long  line  of  foam, 
white  and  beautiful,  and  gracefully  curved 
to  adapt  itself  to  the  curvature  of  the  shore. 


THE    SEA-SHORE.  161 

At  the  extremities  of  the  beach,  points  and 
promontories  of  ragged  rocks  extended  out 
into  the  water,  white  with  the  breakers 
which  foamed  and  struggled  around  them. 
From  the  whole  there  arose  a  continued 
and  solemn  roar,  like  the  sound  of  a  great 
waterfall. 

Mr.  Holiday  stopped  his  horse  by  the  side 
of  the  road,  and  Rollo,  when  he  reached  the 
place,  stopped  also. 

"  Here  we  are,"  said  Rollo.  "  That's 
the  sea." 

"  Where's  the  beach?"    said  Lucy. 

Mary  was  silent. 

"Come,"  said  Rollo,  "let's  drive  on." 

"O  no,"  said  Mary,  "wait  here  a  few 
minutes." 

"  Jonas,  what  are  you  waiting  for  ?  "  said 
Rollo. 

"  I  wished  him  to  stop  here  a  few  min- 
utes," said  Rollo's  father,  "  to  let  us  look 
at  the  prospect." 

Rollo  said  no  more,  though  he  could  not 
understand  what  his  father  was  waiting  for. 
They  all  sat  still,  looking  at  the  view,  and 
saying  very  little ;  Rollo  was  impatient  and 
restless.  In  a  short  time,  however,  Jonas 
g*  14* 


162  THE    SEA-SHORE. 

drove  on,  and  Rollo  followed  him.  They 
went  down  into  a  sort  of  valley,  where  they 
lost  sight  of  the  water  again,  and  then,  after 
winding  around  for  some  time  among  the 
rocks  and  sand  hills,  they  came  at  length 
to  a  high  ridge  of  pebble  stones,  which  ran 
along  the  shore ;  and  surmounting  this,  they 
found  the  white  beach  spread  out  close  be- 
fore them,  while  a  long  line  of  wave  was 
just  curling  over  and  dashing  into  foam 
upon  the  sand.  They  fastened  the  horses 
to  some  heavy  pieces  of  timber,  the  remains 
of  a  wreck,  which  lay  up  high  upon  the 
sand. 

u  O,  what  a  wide  beach  ! "  said  Rollo. 
The  truth  is,  that  when  he  saw  the  beach 
from  the  hill,  it  looked  like  a  mere  line  of 
sand,  extending  along  the  shore.  But  now 
he  found  it  was  a  broad  and  smooth  area, 
gently  descending  towards  the  water.  It 
was  firm,  so  that  the  children  could  run 
about  upon  it.  Rollo  went  down  pretty 
near  to  the  water's  edge,  and  amused  him- 
self by  watching  the  surft  Each  wave 
would  recede  after  it  broke,  and  run  off, 
leaving  a  broad  piece  of  the  beach  dry; 
until,  in  a  moment  more,  another  wave  would 


THE    SEA-SHORE.  163 

come  curling  on,  and  break  over  the  retreat- 
ing water  of  the  former ;  and  then  it  would 
rush  up  the  sand,  in  a  broad  and  rapid 
stream,  all  along  the  shore,  almost  to  Rollo's 
feet. 

Rollo  asked  his  father  to  let  him  take  off 
his  shoes  and  stockings;  and  he  did  so. 
Rollo  put  each  stocking  into  its  shoe,  to 
keep  them  dry,  and  then  laid  them  down 
upon  the  sand  beyond  the  reach  of  the 
waves.  Then  he  would  watch  the  waves, 
and  whenever  the  water  retreated,  he  would 
follow  it  down  until  he  met  the  new  wave 
coming  curling  up  at  him,  when  he  would 
turn  and  run,  the  wave  after  him,  to  the 
shore ;  and  when  the  wave  broke,  it  would 
throw    the  water  all  around  his  feet. 

Lucy  and  Mary  walked  along  the  other 
shore  at  a  greater  distance,  looking  for 
shells.  They  found  a  great  many.  Rollo 
could  hear  their  exclamations  of  delight  at 
every  new  shell  they  foundV,  and  they  were 
continually  calling  upon  him  to  come  and 
get  some  too ;  but  he  was  too  much  occu- 
pied with  the  surf. 

At  length,  Rollo's  attention  was  excited 
by  hearing  Lucy  call  out, 


164  THE    SEA-SHORE. 

"  O  Mary,  Mary !  I  have  found  a  piece 
of  sponge." 

Rollo  turned  around  to  look.  He  had 
just  run  up  from  the  water,  and  was  stand- 
ing beyond  the  reach  of  the  surf,  though 
the  water  which  each  wave,  as  it  broke, 
sent  up  upon  the  shore,  played  around  his 
feet. 

"  How  big  is  it  ?  "  said  Rollo. 

"  About  as  big  as  my  finger. " 

"  Ho  !  "  said  Rollo  j  "  that  is  not  very 
big." 

Just  at  this  instant,  a  wave  larger  than 
usual  burst  just  behind  Rollo,  and  it  sent 
up  a  torrent  of  water  all  around  him,  which 
rose  almost  up  to  his  knees.  Rollo  was 
frightened.  He  started  to  run  ;  but  so  much 
water  confused  and  embarrassed  him.  He 
staggered. 

"  Stand  still,  Rollo,"  said  his  father. 

Rollo  then  stood  still ;  but  by  this  time 
the  water  was  receding,  and  his  eyes  fell 
upon  his  two  shoes,  which  had  been  taken 
up  by  the  wave,  and  were  now  running 
rapidly  down  from  the  shore,  each  loaded 
with  its  stocking.  Rollo  ran  to  seize  them, 
and  had  just  time  to  get  them  before  the 


THE    SEA-SHORE.  165 

next  wave  advanced  and  was  ready  to  dash 
over  them.  He  ran  up  upon  the  sand,  and 
put  his  shoes  several  yards  from  the  high- 
est place  that  the  water  had  come  to. 

"  There,"  said  he,  looking  back  at  the 
waves,  "  now  get  my  shoes  if  you  can ! " 
The  waves  said  nothing,  but  went  on  break- 
ing and  then  retreating,  just  as  before. 

Rollo  then  went  to  where  Mary  and  Lucy 
were,  and  began  to  collect  shells.  They 
found  quite  a  number  of  different  kinds, 
all  along  the  shore.  Some  were  large  and 
coarse,  —  broken  and  worn  by  the  water. 
Some  were  so  thin  and  delicate  that  he 
had  to  wrap  them  up  carefully  in  a  paper, 
and  put  them  into  his  waistcoat  pocket,  in 
order  to  get  them  home  safely.  The  chil- 
dren found  several  other  curiosities  besides 
shells.  They  collected  pebbles,  and  speci- 
mens of  sand,  of  different  colors.  Mary 
found  an  old  iron  spike,  perhaps  part  of  a 
vessel,  with  the  sand  and  gravel  concreted 
around  it.  It  looked  like  stone  growing 
upon  iron.  Rollo  also  found  a  small  piece 
of  wood,  battered  and  worn  by  the  long- 
continued  action  of  the  waves,  and  he 
thought   it   was   very  curious  indeed.      In 


166  THE    SEA-SHORE. 

fine,  the  children  filled  their  baskets  with 
wonders,  and,  after  about  three  quarters  of 
an  hour,  they  set  out  on  their  return  home. 
When  Rollo  went  to  get  his  shoes,  he  found 
the  water  almost  up  to  them.  If  he  had 
staid  away  a  little  longer,  they  would  have 
been  washed  away  again.  The  truth  was, 
the  tide  was  rising. 


167 


THE    CLIFFS. 


As  the  party  slowly  rode  away  from  the 
beach,  Rollo's  mother  asked  if  it  was  too 
late  to  go  to  the  cliffs.  There  was  a 
splendid  prospect  from  the  cliffs.  They 
were  rocky  precipices  overhanging  the  sea, 
at  the  extremity  of  a  point  of  land,  about 
a  mile  from  the  beach  where  they  had 
been.  The  two  girls  wanted  to  go  very 
much;  but  Rollo  did  not  care  so  much 
about  it.  He  was  in  haste  to  get  home 
and  arrange  his  curiosities. 

His  father,  however,  after  looking  at  his 
watch,  said  that  he  thought  there  would 
be  time  to  go.  So  he  turned  his  horse's 
head  in  the  right  direction,  and  they  went 
to  the  cliffs. 

The  precipices  were  very  high,  and  the 
swell  of  the.  sea  dashed  and  roared  against 
them  at  their  foot ;  and  yet  the  water 
looked  very  smooth  at  a  little  distance  from 


168  THE    CLIFFS. 

the  land.  Rollo  wondered  why  there  should 
be  waves  along  the  beach  and  against  the 
rocks,  when  there  were  none  out  in  the 
open  sea. 

" I  should  think,  father,"  said  he,  "that 
it  would  be  calmer  near  the  shore,  and 
more  windy  out  upon   the  water." 

"It  is,"  said  his  father. 

"  Then,  why  are  not  the  waves  bigger  1 " 

"  They  are  full  as  big." 

"Why,  father,"  said  Rollo,  "there  are  no 
waves  at  all  out  from  the  land." 

"  You  can't  see  them  very  well,"  said 
his  father,  "because  we  look  down  upon 
them.  When  we  are  upon  a  mountain, 
the  small  hills  below  almost  disappear. 
Besides,  the  waves  out  in  the  open  sea,  in 
such  a  still  time  as  this,  are  in  the  form 
of  broad  swells ;  but  these  swells  are  broken 
when  they  roll  against  the  shore,  and  so  this 
makes  the  surf." 

"I  mean  to  look  over  and  see,"  said 
Rollo,  and  he  walked  cautiously  along 
towards   the   precipice. 

"O  Rollo,"  exclaimed  Mary,  "don't  go 
so  near ! " 


THE    CLIFFS.  169 

"  Why,  there  is  no  danger,"  said  Rollo. 

"  Rollo  !  Rollo  !  "  exclaimed  Mary  again, 
as  Rollo  went  nearer  and  nearer. 

His  father  had  turned  away,  just  as  he 
had  finished  what  he  said  above,  and  so 
had  not  observed  what  Rollo  was  doing. 
In  fact,  he  did  not  go  near  enough  to  the 
brink  to  be  in  any  danger,  though  Mary  was 
afraid  to  have  him  so   near. 

His  mother,  hearing  Mary's  call,  turned  to 
see  what  was  the  matter,  and  she,  too,  felt 
afraid  at  seeing  Rollo  so  near.  She  called 
him  to  come  away ;  but  Rollo  told  her  that 
he  was  not  near  enough  to  fall. 

"  But  I  had  rather  that  you  would  come 
away,"  said  his  mother;  and  she  looked 
very  anxious  and  uneasy,  and  began  to 
hurry  along  towards  him. 

"You  see  that  large  island  off  to  the 
right,"  said  Rollo's  father,  directing  her 
attention  in  the  right  quarter. 

"Yes,  I  see  it— Rollo!" 

"Well,  that  is  George's  Island.  There  is 
a  rock  lying  just  about  south   of  it." 

"Yes,"  said  Rollo's  mother,  "I  believe  I 
see  it,"  beckoning  at  the  same  time  to  Rollo. 

Her  mind   was  evidently  occupied  with 

h  15 


;70  THE    CLIFFS. 

watching  Rollo.  She  looked  first  at  the 
rock  and  island,  where  Mr.  Holiday  was 
pointing,  and  then  back  at  Rollo,  until  at 
length  Mr.  Holiday,  perceiving  that  her  mind 
was  disturbed  by  Rollo's  motions,  said  to 
him, 

"  Rollo,  keep  outside  of  us." 

"  Outside,  father !  "  said  Rollo  ;  "  how  do 
you  mean  ? " 

"  Why,  farther  back  from  the  brink  than 
we  are." 

So  Rollo  walked  reluctantly  back  until 
he  was  at  about  the  same  distance  from 
the  brink  with  his  father,  and  then  began 
to  take  up  some  little  stones,  and  throw 
them  over.  His  father  and  mother  went 
on  talking,  though  Rollo's  stones  disturbed 
them  a  little.  At  length,  Rollo  came  and 
stood  near  his  father  to  hear  what  he  was 
saying  about  a  large  ship  which  was  just 
coming  into  view  behind  the  island. 

As  he  stood  there,  he  kept  pressing  for- 
ward to  get  as  near  to  the  brink  as  he  could, 
without  actually  going  before  his  father  and 
mother.  She  instinctively  put  out  her 
hand  to  hold  him  back,  and  was  evidently 
so  uneasy,  that  Mr.  Holiday  looked  to  see 


THE    CLIFFS.  17l 

what  was  the  matter.  Rollo  had  pressed 
forward  so  as  to  be  a  very  littlo  in  advance 
of  his  father,  though  it  was  only  very  little 
indeed. 

"Rollo,"  said  his  father,  "go  and  sit  in 
the  carryall  until  we  come." 

Rollo  looked  up  surprised,  and  was  just 
going  to  ask  what  for.  But  he  perceived 
at  once  that  he  was  in  advance  of  his 
parents,  and  that  he  had  consequently  dis- 
obeyed his  father's  orders.  He  went  away 
tather  sullenly. 

"  I  was  not  more  than  an  inch  in  advance 
of  where  they  were,"  said  he  to  himself; 
"  and,  besides,  it  was  far  enough  from  the 
brink.  I  don't  see  why  I  need  be*  sent 
away." 

However,  he  knew  that  he  must  obey, 
and  he  went  and  took  his  seat  in  the 
carryall.  It  was  turned  away  from  the 
sea,  and  he  had  nothing  before  him  but 
the  inland  prospect. 

"  What  dismal-looking  rocks  and  hills  !  " 
said  he  to  himself.  They  had  appeared 
wild  and  picturesque  when  he  first  came 
in  view  of  them,  but  now  they  had  a  very 
gloomy  expression.      He  who  is  dissatisfied 


172  THE    CLIFFS. 

with  himself,  is  generally  dissatisfied  with 
all  around  him. 

Rollo  waited  until  he  was  tired,  and  then 
he  had  to  wait  some  time  longer.  At 
length  his  father  and  mother  appeared,  and 
It  olio  jumped  out,  and  asked  his  father  if 
he  might  ride  in  the  wagon,  and  drive  the 
girls  again. 

"No,"  replied  his  father,  "I  have  made 
another  arrangement.  Jonas,"  he  continued, 
"  you  may  get  into  the  wagon,  and  drive  on 
alone." 

Rollo's  father  then  helped  Mrs.  Holiday 
and  Mary  into  the  back  seat,  while  he  put 
Lucy  and  Rollo  on  before,  and  he  took  a 
seat  between  them.  When  they  had  rode 
on  a  little  way,  he  said, 

"  I  was  very  sorry  to  have  to  send  you 
away,  Rollo." 

"  Why,  father,  I  was  not  more  than  an 
inch  before  you." 

"  That's  true,"  said  his  father. 

"  And  I  don't  think  I  was  in  and 
danger." 

"  I  don't  think  you  were  myself,"  said 
fcis  father. 

"  Then,  why  did  you  send   me  back  ? " 


THE    CLIFFS.  173 

"For  two  reasons.  First,  you  disobey- 
ed me." 

"  But  I  don't  think  I  came  before  you 
more  than  an  inch." 

"Nor  I,"  said  his  father;  "very  likely 
it  was  not  more  than  half  an  inch." 

"  And  was  that  enough  to  do  any  harm? " 

"  It  was  enough  to  constitute  disobe- 
dience. I  told  you  to  keep  back,  outside 
of  us,  and  by  coming  up  even  as  near  as 
we  were,  you  showed  a  disposition  not  to 
obey." 

"  But  I  forgot,"  said  Rollo.  "  I  did  not 
observe  that  I  was  so  near." 

"  But  when  I  give  you  a  direction  like 
that,  it  is  your  duty  to  observe." 

Rollo  was  silent.  After  a  short  pause, 
he  added, 

"  Well,  father,  you  said  that  there  were 
two  reasons  why  you  sent  me  away." 

"Yes,  the  other  was  that  you  were  spoil- 
ing all  the  pleasure  of  the  party.  You  kept 
Mary  and  mother  continually  uneasy  and 
anxious." 

"  But  I  don't  think  I  went  into  any 
danger." 

"  Perhaps  not ;  that  is  not  what  I  charge 
15* 


174  THE    CLIFFS. 

you  with.  I  did  not  send  you  away  for 
going  into  danger,  but  for  making  other  per- 
sons anxious  and  uneasy." 

"  But,  father,  if  there  was  not  any  danger 
why  need  they  be  uneasy  ?  " 

"  Do  you  suppose  that  persons  are  never 
made  uneasy  and  anxious,  except  by  actual 
danger  ? " 

"  Why  —  I  don't  know,  sir." 

"If  you  observe  persons  carefully,  yor 
will  see  that  they  are." 

"  Then  they  must  be  unreasonable,"  said 
Rollo. 

"Not  altogether,"  said  his  father.  "If 
you  were  lying  down  upon  the  ground,  and 
I  were  to  come  up  to  you  with  an  axe,  and 
make  believe  cut  your  head  off,  it  would 
make  you  very  uneasy,  though  there  would 
be  really  no  danger." 

"  But  this  is  very  different,"  said  Rollo. 
"  That  would  have  been  as  if  I  had  made 
believe  push  mother  off." 

"  That  would  have  been  more  like  it,  I 
confess.  But  I  only  meant  to  show  you  that 
H  does  not  always  require  real  danger,  to 
make  any  one  uneasy  and  anxious.  When 
we  see  persons  in  situations  which  strongly 


THE    CLIFFS.  175 

suggest  the  idea  of  danger  to  our  minds,  it 
makes  us  uneasy,  though  we  may  know  that 
there  is  no  actual  danger  in  the  case.  Thus 
it  is  painful  to  most  persons  to  see  a  carpenter 
upon  a  very  lofty  spire,  or  to  go  very  near  a 
precipice,  or  see  any  body  else  go,  even 
when  there  is  a  strong  railing  ;  and  so  in 
all  other  cases.  Therefore,  our  rule  ought 
always  to  be,  when  we  are  in  company  with 
others,  not  only  not  to  go  into  actual  danger, 
but  not  to  go  so  near  as  strongly  to  bring  up 
the  idea  to  their  minds,  and  thus  distress 
them." 

"I  never  thought  of  that  before,"  said 
Rollo. 

"  No,  I  presume  not.  And  I  had  not 
time  to  explain  it  to  you  when  we  were 
upon  the  cliffs,  and  so  I  simply  directed  you 
to  keep  back  of  us.  That  would  have 
prevented  all  trouble,  if  you  had  only 
obeyed." 

Rollo  was  silent  and  thoughtful.  He  was 
sorry  that  he  had  disobeyed. 

"  However,"  continued  his  father,  "  I  am 
very  glad  I  have  had  this  opportunity  to 
explain  this  subject  to  you.      Now,  I  want 


176  THE    CLIFFS. 

you  to  remember,  after  this,  that  the  best 
way,  in  all  such  cases,  is  to  consider,  not 
what  the  actual  danger  is,  but  what  the 
feelings  and  fears  of  those  who  are  with  you 
may  be.  It  is  not  your  own  safety,  but  the 
comfort  of  others,  that  you  have  to  look  out 
for." 

"Yes,  sir,"  said  Rollo,  "I  will." 

"  Once  there  were  two  young  men,"  con- 
tinued his  father,  "  taking  a  ride  in  chaises. 
Each  had  his  sister  with  him.  They  came 
to  an  old  bridge  that  was  somewhat  decayed, 
and  it  led  across  a  very  deep  ravine  which 
looked  very  frightful,  though  in  reality  the 
bridge  was  perfectly  strong  and  safe.  Now, 
when  the  first  chaise  came  near,  the  girl 
who  was  in  it  cried  out, 

"  4  O  brother,  what  a  bridge  !  O,  I  must 
get  out  and  walk  over  it.  I  don't  dare  to 
ride  over  such  a  bridge.' 

"  '  Poh,  nonsense ! '  said  Henry.  Her 
brother's  name  was  Henry.  l  The  bridge 
is  strong  enough  for  a  four- ox  team.  I  have 
been  over  it  a  dozen  times.'  So  he  drove 
on.  His  sister  looked  very  much  terrified 
when  they  came  upon  the  bridge,  but  they 
went  over  safely. 


THE    CLIFFS.  177 

"  \  There,5  said  Henry,  when  they  had  got 
over,  'I  told  you  it  was  safe.' 

"  When  the  other  chaise  came  down,  the 
young  lady  said  the  same  thing  to  her  broth- 
er, whose  name  was  Charles.  She  said  she 
was  afraid  to  ride  over. 

u  c  yery  wen;>  sai(j  Charles.  '  The  bridge 
is  safe  enough,  but  I  think,  perhaps,  it  may 
be  pleasanter  for  you  to  walk  over.  It  will 
rest  you  to  walk  a  little,  and.  besides,  you  can 
stop  to  look  at  the  pleasant  prospect,  up  and 
down  the  river,  from  the'  middle  of  the 
bridge.' 

"  So  his  sister  got  out,  and  he  drove  the 
chaise  over  carefully,  while  she  walked  be- 
hind. Now,  which  do  you  think  took  the 
best  course,  Charles  or  Henry  ?  " 

"I —  don't  know,"  said  Rollo. 

"  The  way  to  determine,"  said  his  father, 
"is  to  apply  the  Savior's  rule,  'Do  unto 
others  as  you  would  have  others  do  unto 
you.'  " 

"  Well,  I  think,"  said  Rollo,  "  that  I  should 
rather  get  out  and  walk." 

"  I  am  sure  I  should,"  said  Lucy. 

The  whole  party,  after  this,  got   safely 


178  THE    CLIFFS. 

home,  though  it  was  too  late,  that  night,  to 
arrange  their  curiosities.  They,  however 
looked  them  all  over  the  next  day,  and  they 
made  a  very  large  and  valuable  addition  to 
their  cabinet.  The  specimens  of  sand  of  dif- 
ferent colors  they  arranged  in  little,  square, 
pasteboard  boxes,  which  Mary  made,  cover- 
ing them  neatly  with  blue  paper  upon  the 
outside,  and  with  white  paper  within. 


179 


THE    THREE    NORTHMEN. 

The  summer  and  autumn  passed  away 
and  the  winter  came  on.  Rollo  was  having 
a  new  great-coat  made.  He  had  grown  too 
big  for  the  old  one,  and  so  his  mother  had 
laid  it  aside,  waiting  for  Nathan  to  grow  up 
to  it. 

When  Rollo's  coat  was  done,  he  went  out 
to  show  it  to  Jonas.  It  was  thick  and  warm, 
with  large  cuffs,  and  there  was  a  good  warm 
collar  to  come  up  about  his  ears. 

"  And  see,"  said  Rollo,  throwing  the  coat 
back,  and  slipping  one  of  his  arms  out,  "  see 
how  easy  it  comes  off  and  on !  " 

"Yes,"  said  Jonas,  "and  that  is  a  great 
convenience  in  a  great-coat.  It  is  a  very 
fine  great-coat,  indeed.  I  think,  with  that 
on,  you  will  be  able  to  make  your  stand 
against  all  three  of  the  Northmen." 

"All  three  of  the  Northmen!"  repeated 
Rollo.     "  Who  are  the  Northmen  ?  " 

11  Don't  you  know  whc  the  three  famous 


180  THE    THREE    NORTHMEN. 

Northmen  are,"  said  Jonas,  "  who  do  so 
much  mischief  ? " 

"No,"  said  Rollo,  "I  never  heard  of  them 
before." 

"  Well,"  said  Jonas,  "  I  will  tell  you  some 
time,  but  now  I  must  go  away  with  the 
cart." 

Jonas  had  been  harnessing  the  Aorse  into 
the  cart,  in  the  yard,  while  Rollo  had  been 
talking  with  him,  and  now  was  about  ready 
to  go  away.  Rollo  determined  to  ask  his 
mother  to  let  him  go  with  him. 

"  Where  are  you  going,  Jonas? "  said  he. 

"  Down  into  the  woods,"  said  Jonas. 

"  Wait  a  minute  for  me." 

So  away  Rollo  ran  to  ask  his  mother. 
She  said,  yes ;  and  he  accordingly  came  out 
and  took  his  seat,  by  the  side  of  Jonas,  upon 
a  board  which  was  placed  across  the  cart, 
from  one  side  to  the  other. 

Jonas  was  going  down  into  the  woods  to 
bring  up  a  load  of  wood  which  he  had  ob- 
tained from  the  trimmings  of  the  trees.  It 
was  a  cold,  frosty  morning,  and  the  winter 
was  near  j  and  Jonas  wished  to  get  the  wood 
in  before  the  snow  should  come  and  cover  it 
up.     Rollo  was  so  much  interested  in  driv- 


THE    THREE    NORTHMEN.  181 

ing  the  cart  down,  and  then  in  loading  it 
with  wood,  that  he  forgot  to  ask  Jonas  about 
the  three  famous  Northmen. 

About  a  month  after  this,  there  were  a  few 
very  cold  mornings.  The  ice  froze  very 
hard  in  a  tub  of  water  before  the  pump,  and 
Jonas  had  to  cut  a  hole  in  it  with  the  axe, 
for  the  horse  to  drink. 

Rollo  saw  him  through  the  kitchen  win- 
dow, and  he  opened  the  door  and  ran  out  a 
moment  to  see  him.  Jonas  was  cutting 
away  very  carefully  all  around  the  sides  of 
the  tub,  so  as  to  get  the  whole  mass  of  ice 
out  together.  Rollo  stood  looking  on,  shiv- 
ering. He  had  no  hat  on,  and  only  slippers 
upon  his  feet.  He  stood  leaning  a  little  for- 
ward, his  arms  hanging  off  from  his  sides  as 
if  they  were  driven  off  by  electric  repulsion. 

"  A'n't  you  cold  ?  "  said  Rollo  to  Jonas. 

'No,"  said  Jonas,  "not  at  all." 

"  I  am ;  and  I  can't  stay  out  here  any 
longer,  I  am  so  cold." 

"  You  are  not  prepared  for  it ;  that  is  the 
difficulty.  Go  and  put  on  your  boots,  and 
your  cap,  and  your  mittens,  and  button  up 
your  jacket,  and  come  out  here  and  go  to 
work  with  me,  and  you  won't  be  cold." 
16 


182  THE    THREE    NORTHMEN. 

Rollo  ran  in  and  got  his  boots ;  and  after 
warming  them  by  the  kitchen  fire,  he  put 
them  on.  He  also  buttoned  his  jacket  up  to 
his  chin,  and  drew  on  his  mittens,  and  put 
on  his  cap.  He  then  went  out  again  to  find 
Jonas. 

He  found  him  in  the  barn,  pitching  down 
hay. 

"  Now,"  said  Rollo,  as  he  came  up  the 
stairs,  "  what  shall  I  do  ? " 

"  Ah,  you  have  come  out  to  work,  have 
you  ? "  said  Jonas.  "  Well,  take  this  pitch- 
fork, and  mount  up  upon  the  loft  there,  and 
pitch  me  down  some  hay." 

Rollo  found  it  very  hard  to  get  up  upon 
the  loft.  There  were  only  some  pegs,  driven 
into  a  post,  to  climb  up  by.  However,  with 
Jonas's  help,  he  got  up,  and  then  clambered 
over  upon  the  hay;  and  Jonas  threw  the 
pitchfork  up  after  him. 

"  Now  work  moderately,"  said  Jonas,  "  and 
I'll  insure  that  the  Northmen  can't  touch 
you." 

"  O,  there  ! "  said  Rollo,  "  you  have  never 
told  me  about  the  Northmen." 

"  Well,"  said  Jonas,  "  I  will  tell  you  now, 
when  you  come  down." 


THE    THREE    NORTHMEN.  183 

After  pitching  the  hay  down  a  little  while, 
Rollo  descended,  though  it  was  not  necessary 
for  Jonas  to  help  him,  for  he  jumped  down 
upon  the  heap  of  hay  which  he  had  made. 
They  then  went  together,  attending  to  Jo- 
nas's  work  about  the  barn,  while  Rollo  stop- 
ped occasionally  to  look  out  the  open  door  or 
window,  where  the  sun  was  shining  in  very 
pleasantly.  Rollo  began  to  think  it  was  a 
warm,  pleasant  morning. 

"  There  is  one  of  the  Northmen,"  said 
Jonas,  "  that  you  are  somewhat  acquainted 
with  already." 

"  What  is  his  name  ?  "  said  Rollo. 

"  Captain  Jack  Frost,"  replied  Jonas. 

"  O,  yes,"  said  Rollo,  with  a  smile,  "  I 
have  heard  of  that  gentleman  before." 

"Yes,"  said  Jonas,  "he  is  pretty  well 
known.  He  is  a  great  mischief-maker.  He 
lives  in  an  ice  castle  at  the  North,  and  in  the 
fall  of  the  year  he  comes  creeping  along  in 
the  still  nights,  and  early  in  the  mornings. 
He  builds  bridges  over  the  ponds,  and  brooks, 
and  plants  little  gardens  of  hoar  frost ;  and 
where  he  sees  a  stone  in  the  ground,  he 
stamps  his  foot  upon  it,  and  crowds  it  down 
a  little  way.     Then  it  is  his  great  delight  to 


184  THE    THREE    NORTHMEN. 

go  about  pinching  boys'  toes  and  noses.  He 
is  a  sly  rogue." 

"  And  who  are  the  other  Northmen  ?  "  said 
Rollo. 

"  The  next  is  General  Boreas,"  said  Jonas. 

"  General  Boreas !  "  repeated  Rollo  j  "  and 
who  is  he  ?  " 

"  O  !  he  is  a  terrible  fellow,"  replied  Jonas. 
"He  comes  roaring  and  thundering  along 
the  tops  of  the  forests  at  midnight,  in  snow- 
storms and  hail.  He  buries  up  the  whole 
country,  he  breaks  down  the  trees,  and  some- 
times unroofs  the  houses.  Then,  if  he  finds 
any  poor  traveller  out,  he  whistles  and  roars 
about  his  ears,  and  tries  to  frighten  him  :  and 
he  throws  snow  into  his  face,  and  heaps  it 
up  all  about  him  in  order  to  bury  him  up  if 
he  can. 

"Then,  besides,"  continued  Jonas,  "the 
old  stormer  has  another  way  of  making  mis- 
chief. After  he  has  got  the  valleys  and 
streams  covered  and  filled  with  ice  and  snow, 
he  brings  on  a  tempest  of  wind  and  rain, 
and  fills  the  land  with  torrents,  which  raise 
the  streams,  and  tear  up  the  ice,  and  carry  it 
down  in  vast,  broken,  and  jamming  blocks, 
which  break  down  the  bridges,  and  carry 


THE    THREE    NORTHMEN.  185 

away  dams,  and  spread  all  over  the  meadows, 
frightening  a  good  many  families  out  of  their 
beds  at  midnight. " 

"Is  that  the  way  that  General  Boreas 
acts  ?  "  said  Rollo. 

"Yes,"  replied  Jonas,  "that's  the  way." 

"And  who  is  the  third  Northman?"  said 
Rollo. 

"  His  name  is  Old  Zero,"  replied  Jonas. 
"  He  is  more  than  threescore  years  and  ten, 
a  great  deal ;  his  head  is  hoary,  and  his  beard 
is  long  and  gray.  He  creeps  softly  along 
after  General  Boreas  has  worked  himself  out 
of  breath,  and  gone  away.  He  curtains  over 
all  the  windows  with  frost  work  in  the  night. 
He  likes  the  night,  when  it  is  calm  and  still, 
and  the  stars  are  shining  bright  and  cold  all 
over  the  sky.  And  he  kills  more  people 
than  Boreas  does." 

"  Kills  them  ? "  said  Rollo. 

"  Yes,"  replied  Jonas.  "  He  makes  no 
blustering,  but  he  stings  bitterly,  and  the 
poor  traveller  has  his  ears,  and  hands,  and  feet 
frozen  before  he  knows  what  a  cruel  enemy 
is  around  him.  Captain  Jack  Frost  you  may 
laugh  at, — but  as  to  Old  Zero,  you  had  bet- 
ter beware  of  him." 
h*  16* 


186  THE    THREE    NORTHMEN. 

Rollo  laughed  a  good  deal  at  Jonas's  ac- 
count of  the  three  Northmen,  and  Jonas  told 
him  that  they  sometimes  made  some  splendid 
curiosities,  which  would  be  beautiful  for  a 
shelf  in  his  museum,  if  they  would  only 
keep. 

"  What  are  the  curiosities  ? "  said  Rollo. 

"  O,  all  kinds  of  stars,  and  spangles,  and 
snow-flakes,  of  a  great  many  beautiful  forms, 
— and  icicles,  and  frost  work.  But  they  will 
not  keep  very  long,  unless  you  make  a  cabi- 
net expressly  for  them." 

"  I  can't  make  a  cabinet,"  said  Rollo. 

"O,  yes,  you  can, — a  frost-cabinet,"  said 
Jonas. 

"How?"  asked  Rollo. 

n  Why,  you  must  go  down  near  the  brook, 
in  the  middle  of  the  winter,  and  make  a  lit- 
tle room  of  snow.  Then  you  must  get  a 
large  piece  of  thin,  clear  ice  from  a  still  place 
in  the  brook,  and  fix  it  in  for  a  window. 
You  must  also  get  some  sheets  of  white  ice, 
or  snow  crust,  for  shelves,  and  put  your  frost 
curiosities  upon  them.  If  you  make  it  in  a 
cold  place,  they  will  keep  for  some  time." 

"I  will  make  a  frost  museum,"  said  Rollo 


THE    THREE    NORTHMEN.  187 

11 1  mean  to  go  down  to-day  and  look  out  a 
place." 

"  Yes,"  said  Jonas,  "and  you  can  keep  it 
a  secret  until  it  is  done,  and  then  take  ycur 
father  and  mother  down  to  see  it,  and  surprise 
them." 

"Yes,"  said  Rollo,  clapping  his  hands, 
"so  I  will." 


